Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 28, Fateful Encounter
After nearly a week, Ritas once again came to the "Faith Committee" where all the wise men gathered.

The lobby of the committee office was still filled with strange-looking gods and mighty men. The only difference from last time was that they had a different group of people.

The particularly ostentatious style of the Pope in Libera is said to have come from the Adventurer's Guild.

In the imagination of those who are not familiar with adventurers, there is a huge notice board in the adventurer's guild, which is densely packed with various commissions and tasks. Adventurers only need to freely choose and complete them.

But in fact, there are indeed notice boards, but the commissions that can be left there are those that have been selected countless times. Some are too difficult to complete, some are too suspicious to be contacted, or some are too low to be proportional to the commission content.

Compared to the number of commissions, the number of adventurers is simply too large. Moreover, the commissioners generally tend to proactively ask individual adventurers or adventure groups to commission, rather than posting a bounty-type mission and asking adventurers who have no idea of their background to do the work for them.

Therefore, unless one is extremely capable and strong, reputation is more important than strength for an adventurer to succeed. Only adventurers and adventure groups with a great reputation can continue to receive commissions.

In such an environment, the competition among adventurers naturally changed from how to improve their strength to how to make themselves more famous.

Weird costumes, performance art, spreading legends, etc.

When I came to my senses, the adventurer's circle had become a situation where all kinds of adventurers were competing with each other.

The reason why adventurers have become what they are today is that the threshold to become an adventurer is too low and there are too many adventurers.

Then, in the Holy Kingdom of Libera, the threshold for establishing a church is also very low, and there are also many churches.
The patriarchs and popes actually thought about taking a completely different path from the adventurers.

That is to exaggerate the gods they believe in to be particularly omnipotent, and describe the benefits of joining the church as particularly beautiful.

However, this kind of mutual boasting has become more and more inflated, resulting in ordinary people becoming more and more immune to this kind of religious narrative.

So, in the end, the patriarchs and popes finally took the old path of adventurers.

In order to make the church more famous and to gain more believers and sponsors, their painting style gradually became more abstract.

At the end of the day, it's all business.
Ritas shook his head, walked to the window of the hall, and explained his purpose to the clerk inside.

After confirming that everything was correct, the slightly plump middle-aged clerk began to sign the relevant documents.

"You are so young and you are already building a church? Instead of doing these unrealistic things, why don't you find a job that can support yourself?"

The clerk spoke casually while writing.

Ritas could tell that this well-informed staff member of the Faith Committee had no ill intentions. Moreover, Ritas, who actually had no intention of devoting himself to the church, did not feel mocked or insulted. So he calmly replied,

"I am a professor of magic who serves as an instructor at Earls Higher School of Magic, so please don't worry about that."

"Oh, professor of magic."

The clerk looked a little surprised, but this surprise soon turned into a self-deprecating smile.
"Who isn't a professor of magic? Here, take these documents. They say that the end of magic is theology. Maybe you can save yourself decades of detours."

After taking the document, Ritas was full of question marks.

What does that mean? Is this clerk a senior in the magical academic world?
While trying to recall whether he had seen the other person somewhere before, Ritas walked out of the committee hall.

Outside the hall, a group of future popes who were preparing to establish a church gathered. When they saw Ritas holding the approved qualification certificate and other things, they actually started to applaud.

Ritas looked around in confusion.

Ritas, who has always been a man who never shows fear in the face of anything, saw an old pope with only three teeth left and about twenty iron rings on his body, smiling at him, "We will be companions from now on."
He was really scared.

After leaving the Faith Committee, Ritas felt as if he had survived a disaster in another world.

Sure enough, I should avoid things that I am not familiar with in the future.
Ritas sighed and came all the way to the northern suburbs of Spring City.

For Spring, a city that is constantly expanding with its east side, the northern suburbs are a relatively deserted area.

However, on this day, Tas felt that the northern suburbs area was quite lively.

There were many fierce-looking strong men looking for something everywhere.

Perhaps there is a mercenary group stationed nearby?
Thinking this, Ritas arrived at his destination.

Although Ritas is a smart man from any perspective, he has also done stupid things in his life.

Especially the period when he became famous in the academic world at a young age, the academic books he compiled were hot-selling in the mainland, and then he became obsessed with archaeology.

At that time, it was widely circulated among antique dealers that "you can sell a broken plate from the day before yesterday at a high price by smearing some dirt on it" from the 'King of Fakes'.

Ritas is the legendary sucker and the king of counterfeits.

In fact, Ritas should have been more cautious, or the people around him should have advised him otherwise.

However, his teacher only taught him that "when you have money, you should spend it recklessly", and the mean colleague who introduced him to the antique circle at the institute kept repeating that "in the identification of antiques, even if you make mistakes a hundred times, as long as you get it right once, it's not a loss—"

Even so, looking at the abandoned church in front of him, Ritas felt that he was a little too stupid at the time.

“Why do I think a building that has been abandoned for many years has value as a cultural relic?”

Ritas still finds it incredible.

With the money used to buy this abandoned church, there would probably be enough left to buy two mansions of the same size.

The most important thing is that he purchased the land here separately!

At this point, the person who sold the abandoned church has long since gone to live a happy life, so Ritas can only think optimistically.

At least, the Bath Goddess and the Bath Goddess Church now have a dedicated church, right?

In an environment where most churches can operate formally by simply finding a remote place and spreading a square of cloth, it is very rare to find a church building.

Although the statues in the church had been stolen long ago, this was a minor problem.

Ritas just needs to find some time, make a disc out of some clay and throw it up.

The bathing goddess will not be dissatisfied.

In this difficult world where the great gods who move mountains and fill the sea and change time and space at will don't even deserve to have a small wooden house. The goddess who only controls bathing already has a church. What else can you ask for?
Ritas was afraid that the Bathing Goddess received such high-level treatment from him, and that if the news spread to the gods' world, it would arouse the jealousy of other gods and lead to a war between gods or something.

Thinking randomly in his mind and convincing himself that he had made good purchase of this abandoned church, Ritas walked towards the direction of the church.

door?
This church has no doors. Not only that, there are no chairs or carpets in the church hall.

This abandoned church seems to be a protest against the public security problems in the city of Spring.

Walking into the basically bare church, Ritas glanced at the baptismal font near the entrance that had long since dried up, and continued walking towards the nave.

In the rather spacious nave, Ritas unexpectedly discovered that there was still a piece of colored glass left where the skylight was.

Following the brilliant light from the only remaining triangular glass, Ritas was surprised to find that there was a figure standing on the altar where even the statue of the god had disappeared.

It was a red-haired girl, who was standing with her hands behind her back, facing Ritas, and gazing at the few murals in the abandoned church that could not be moved.

Perhaps she heard Ritas's footsteps, the red-haired girl slowly turned her head.

In the dim church, under the only bright light from the skylight, the red-haired girl smiled at Ritas.

"Is this fate?" The girl's soft voice echoed in the empty church, sounding both a question and a statement.

?

Ritas looked at the red-haired girl in front of him suspiciously.

Usually, when encountering the current situation in such an abandoned church, romantics would think they are having a beautiful encounter, while pragmatists would think they might have seen a ghost.

No matter how beautiful the other person is, pragmatists will still be extremely vigilant, especially after the other person says something quite meaningful.

Ritas is a pragmatist, but he is skeptical about the existence of "ghosts".

Therefore, he thought that the red-haired girl might be here to steal the mural.

Why did these people not even spare the murals? They were one of the few cultural relics in this church!
Ritas frowned deeply.

Seeing Ritas staring at her without responding, the red-haired girl's warm smile gradually became stiff and awkward.

At this moment, there was a faint sound of commotion coming from outside the church.

"How can it be impossible to find it! It was lost in this area before! Pay more attention, have you ever looked for ruins like this?"

A rough voice shouted and cursed. Not long after, several footsteps were heard in the church.

The red-haired girl who was laughing so hard before suddenly looked around. She seemed to be looking for a hiding place, but she couldn't find a suitable place in the empty church nave.

Hearing the footsteps getting closer, she finally decided to go all out and rushed directly to the back of the altar.

The altar is only half a person's height, so it can hardly provide any shelter unless you lie down close to the ground. And the ground condition of a church that has been unattended for many years can be imagined.

Ritas, whose mysophobia would relapse from time to time, felt uncomfortable all over when he heard footsteps reaching the middle hall.

They were two tall and strong men, one with a bald head and the other wearing a black eye patch on his right eye.

If Grenville's image was fierce with a hint of pure stupidity, then the images of these two strong men were truly ferocious.

In Spring City, it is forbidden to carry swords that can be clearly used as weapons.

However, these two strong men had a scimitar on their waists, which had no other use except for chopping and killing.

"Look carefully"

As the older, stronger man was giving orders to the younger, stronger man, Ritas emerged from the shadows.

“What are you doing here!?”

Ritas, scolded harshly.

In the nave of the church, Ritas was confronted by two suspicious strong men.

Perhaps because he was frightened by Ritas' sudden appearance, the young strong man looked particularly unfriendly, as if he was ready to push forward at any time.

Signaling his younger brother to behave himself, the other strong man stared at Ritas. He might be curious about why Ritas was here, but he still patiently prioritized what he should do.

"Sir, have you seen in this ruins..."

"Although this place was originally built as a church, both the land and the church building were traded under the name 'private residence'."

"What are you talking about? The boss is asking you, have you ever seen a red-haired woman here?"

"That is to say, for me who purchased this building, this is my private residence, and it is also my home."

Completely ignoring the questions from the two sturdy men, Ritas just stared at them and spoke in a calm voice.

“So, we just wanted to ask.”

"What you are doing at this moment is breaking into my house without permission. And you are breaking in with the owner present. In other words, it is not theft but robbery!"

"what?"

The young strong man, who was originally eager to try, was shocked at this moment.

After he recovered, he put his hand on the scimitar at his waist and gave a dangerous look.

"What do you mean? You want to say you live here?"

The "boss" on the other side stared at Ritas with the same dangerous eyes. As a result, after a few minutes since they met, he found that Ritas had not blinked once.

"I also know that the situation of this 'private residence' is rather special, so I am willing to give you a chance. Now, leave here immediately, otherwise I will sue you for robbery."

"Boss, is this guy mentally ill? Should we teach him a lesson? Otherwise, he won't answer our questions at all."

Although the young strong man spoke fiercely, his expression seemed to show some signs of retreat.

"It seems that you ignored my ultimatum."

Ritas said, pulling out his wand.

After seeing that Ritas was actually a wizard, the two strong men took a step back at the same time as if facing a formidable enemy.

Ritas waved his magic wand and two pieces of parchment flew into the air. Then, the magic particles attracted the surrounding dust, which quickly gathered on the parchment, and two lifelike portraits gradually appeared.

After a moment of hesitation, the "boss" realized what Ritas was doing, pulled the young man up and ran away, shouting "Run, there's something wrong with this guy."

As they left, Ritas shouted loudly,

"You can't run away. I've memorized your appearance!"

As he spoke, he used his magic wand to shoot a flare-like magic towards the skylight of the church.

Hearing the sharp sound of flares behind them, the two strong men naturally ran even harder.

"Ah~ As expected of a professor, he drove them away so easily."

Not long after, after confirming that it was safe, the red-haired girl stood up from behind the altar, brushed the dust off her body, and said so with emotion.

Then, she turned around and found another piece of parchment floating in front of Ritas.

"My previous words were also meant for you, Student Cecilia Windsor."

Having recognized the red-haired girl, Ritas continued to urge the magic to paint.

Cecilia, the freshman chief, was stunned for a second, then incredulous for a second, then unbelievable for a second, and finally rushed towards Ritas in panic.

"Hey, hey? Don't draw, don't draw! Professor, don't draw!!!"

The girl's voice once again echoed in the empty church.

(End of this chapter)