Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 338 Future
In the maze, Millie carefully followed Alan.

The ancient labyrinth, built at an unknown time, contains numerous still-functioning traps. While one or two of these traps pose no threat to Millie, their sheer number can put her in grave danger.

Alan showed neither amusement nor concern for Millie, who was constantly setting traps for him.

Rather than saying, as Alan had previously stated, that she was so "exhausted" that even curiosity was a luxury, it would be more accurate to say that she was almost devoid of any emotion.

Millie was curious about what kind of past Alan had gone through to become the person he was today, and at the same time, she was trying to perfectly follow in Alan's footsteps to avoid triggering another trap.

After walking through the maze for several hours, the two found themselves facing an ancient stone gate with intricate patterns.

The stone gate stood somewhat abruptly halfway through a passage in the maze, towering high enough to reach the ceiling of the underground space. What was strange about this gate was that it was merely a gate; there was no space connected to it.

Just as Millie was wondering what this strange thing was, Alan walked to the door and uttered a series of words with very strange pronunciation.

Then, the strange stone door slowly began to open. And inside the stone door, a completely different world appeared.

"This is the market?"

Looking inside the stone gate, Millie couldn't help but show a look of surprise.

It was a city built of a large number of pure white stones.

The city itself is spiral-shaped, and countless houses are arranged along the spiraling "mountain road". At the top of the spiral mountain is a temple-like building.

Millie wasn't sure if it was due to her sense of distance, but the houses in the city seemed exceptionally large. By normal proportions, perhaps five to ten times the size of a normal person would be needed to fit comfortably into these enormous houses.

"Don't get me wrong, this city wasn't built by people from today. It existed before the world was destroyed. It's just that after the ground became uninhabitable, some busybodies found this place in order to prolong their lives."

As Alan spoke, he stepped into the ancient city of "market".

Millie, who quickly followed, didn't misunderstand the matter, but she was still very concerned about words like "world destruction".

Having experienced some of these things firsthand, Millie wasn't entirely unable to understand.

After all, inhaling even a tiny amount of pollen, invisible to the naked eye, can cause green erosion, turning one into a plant-like monster in a short period. Such an environment is indeed unsuitable for humans and most other organisms.

Even so, Millie found it hard to imagine that such a phenomenon could occur worldwide and continue for a long time.

"Miss Alan, what caused this world to be destroyed?"

After thinking for a moment, Millie still asked the question directly.

"What caused the destruction? Naturally, it was the destruction of the things you saw. However, I suppose that's not what you want to know. And the answers you seek, my reply is 'I don't know either.'"

Alan shrugged.

Since she usually only has one arm, this movement looks a bit strange.

"When I was a child, I slept for a long time, and when I woke up, the world was already like this. Of course, I had talked to others about it before. But what I knew was more of a solution than a root cause, or to be more precise, a suspected solution."

Alan gave a low laugh.

"That big tree you see. Legend has it that if you go there, all your problems can be solved. But it's just a legend."

Alan, who usually has very little emotional fluctuation, showed a clear sadness in his expression.

Millie seemed somewhat dazed as she listened to these words.

The pseudo-World Tree and the surrounding Erles Academy.

It was a place she would naturally visit whenever it wasn't a holiday. In this world, it seemed to have become an unreachable wasteland.

But thinking about it, even the area where that tree was barely visible had been attacked by countless monsters. It's likely that the area closer to the pseudo-World Tree had already been completely transformed into a forbidden zone and dead zone.

During their brief conversation, Millie and Alan followed the mountain path leading to the gate and arrived at a place close to Whitestone City.

Perhaps because the overall sense of desolation in this world was too strong, Millie's first reaction when she saw two people dressed as guards on the road leading into the city was surprise.

The guards' attire could only be described as rudimentary. And the only things that could identify them were probably the two crooked long sticks they each held upright.

As if he hadn't seen the guards at all, Alan simply walked straight into the city.

Naturally, the guards, in order to prove that they were not just for show, tried to stop and question them.

Who are you? Where are you from?

While the younger guard questioned Alan sharply, the older guard looked at him with obvious surprise and doubt.

Then, the older guard pulled the young man aside and whispered something to him.

Immediately, both of them, their faces filled with fear, silently stepped aside and stopped trying to stop Alan, who hadn't said a word.

“Miss Alan, you seem to be quite famous in the market. However…”

"Are they all afraid of me?"

In the white city, Millie continued to follow behind Alan.

Because the city truly appears, from a distance, as if designed for giants ten times the size of ordinary people, the streets, though incredibly wide, are remarkably sparsely populated.

However, if you count them carefully, the number is actually not too bad, of course, provided that the population of this city is not the majority of the total population of this destroyed world.

Like the elderly guards before him, many people in the market seemed to recognize Aran, and then hurriedly left with expressions of fear.

"Could that be the reason?"

As Alan spoke, he pointed to his face.

The next moment, the veins on the right side of Alan's face began to bulge violently, and soon they were no longer "veins" but turned into things like plant roots.

Looking at Alan's face, which was covered and enveloped by green veins, Millie couldn't help but swallow hard.

Although Millie had been somewhat prepared when Alan's empty arm became the base for a plant, actually seeing a hideous and terrifying mutated face was still too much of a shock.

"Could it be that Miss Alan also suffers from 'green erosion'?"

"It's a little different."

After retracting the plant parts into his body, Alan shook his head and said...
"When I was a child, my body was somewhat special. So special that I wouldn't have been able to live to adulthood in a normal life. However, this body, which seemed to be cursed, was surprisingly well-suited to the environment in a destroyed world after some experiments."

"Experiment." "Don't make that face. Don't think of bad things whenever you mention experiments on human bodies. Although it wasn't exactly voluntary, I probably wouldn't be alive now if it weren't for that person. Of course, living in a world like this for so long isn't necessarily a good thing either."

Alan, who was indifferent to many things, spoke these words specifically to the person who had transformed her. Clearly, even now, that person still held a very high place in Alan's heart.

"Your face might be more effective in this city than mine. Although, most of the people from 'that era' should be dead by now."

In the midst of his words, and without any room for resistance, Alan, with a fluid and unexpected movement, gently lifted Millie's chin with his fingertips.

Millie felt somewhat helpless after encountering this situation again.

I thought that after several months of training at Elson Stream, she had gained some power even after leaving magic. But in front of truly powerful people, she still seems to be only a "beginner".

Without a comparison point, Millie couldn't quite gauge just how strong Alan was. But intuitively, she felt that Alan might not be weaker than Roland in his middle age.

"Miss Alan, there's a shop that sells a cure for Green Erosion Syndrome."

After getting a general idea of ​​the market's layout, Millie asked somewhat eagerly.

She wasn't unconcerned about the health of the Bathing Goddess and Xia Luoluo; she was just trying her best to suppress her anxiety.

However, no matter how mature Millie is beyond her years, or rather, how she is forced to be mature, this suppression has its limits.

"Hmm, I can think of a few. But for you, I recommend that one."

As Alan spoke, he pointed in a direction.
"That shop covered in gold leaf, with that quirky vibe. Obviously, you shouldn't get lost there. Now, let me think... For the next hour, after I've finished my business, I'll wait for you at the door we came from."

"it is good"

Millie nodded, without asking what would happen after an hour, nor complaining that Alan wasn't going with her.

Looking up slightly, Millie spotted a golden house amidst a sea of ​​white stone a little above her, and quickly jogged over.

A short while later, Millie arrived in front of the golden mansion.

Looking up at the towering building covered with various gold objects, Millie somewhat agreed with Alan's assessment.

Bad sense of humor.
In a world that has already been destroyed, gold no longer holds such high value. So perhaps the shop owner's painstaking collection of so many gold items stems from some deep-seated obsession with the distant past.

It's probably because once it's turned off, it's very difficult to turn it back on.

These huge houses in the market are generally left open. Those who do care about privacy will only build simple inner rooms inside.

The gold shop was no exception. The open doors revealed a dimly lit but incredibly spacious hall.

Standing at the shop entrance, Millie peered inside with a somewhat sneaky look, feeling quite uneasy.

She doesn't have any of the currency or anything like that that exists in this world, so even if this shop has a cure for Green Erosion, she simply can't afford it.

Even so, she still came here because she had a feeling that Alan wouldn't betray her.

Although Alan was somewhat aloof and unsociable, Millie felt that since he had decided to help them on a whim, he wouldn't suddenly abandon them halfway through.

Just as Millie was peeking around curiously, a voice suddenly rang out from behind her.

"What are you doing sneaking around in front of someone else's shop? This isn't a place for kids—"

As they were talking, a blonde middle-aged woman walked past Millie and went straight into the golden mansion.

Unlike everyone else she encountered in the White Stone City, this blonde woman was dressed exceptionally cleanly, exquisitely, and luxuriously.

Even her hair was tied up with nearly ten different pieces of jewelry. She was a blonde woman who looked like a middle-aged noblewoman who had gotten herself into the wrong era and the wrong world. She just casually glanced at Millie.

Millie only managed to catch a glimpse of the other person's profile.

But at that moment, both of them were clearly stunned.

Millie, who couldn't help but widen her mouth and eyes, could now understand why the Goddess of Bath was so excited when she recognized Alan.

because
"You...you are...Sylvie?"

Although her face was etched with the marks of time, Millie still recognized the other person as her classmate from the Yewwood Class at Earls Academy, Sylvie Latras.

"Sylvie? What a nostalgic name. And you have such a comical face. So who is playing such a cruel joke on me?"

Soon after, led by Sylvie, Millie arrived at the eastern section of the enormous mansion.

Similar to Sylvie's attire, many spaces inside the enormous mansion were furnished with rather valuable and exquisite furniture.

At this moment, Millie also sat on the soft sofa and accepted the black tea that Sylvie handed her.

"Were you the only noble in the post-apocalyptic world, Sylvie?"

Perhaps it was because she had finally encountered a classmate after traversing two regions. Overwhelmed with excitement, Millie somewhat forgot her strange predicament and complained in a manner similar to her usual interactions with Sylvie.

"Wow, it's so similar, it's uncanny. So similar, it doesn't seem like a joke."

Sylvie, whose demeanor was completely different from before, leaned slightly against the sofa, carefully observing Millie.

"Could it really be you? You didn't actually die when you pioneered this 'new world'? No, that doesn't explain why you've become so young. Besides, I saw you buried with my own eyes."

"."

Hearing Sylvie's words, Millie suddenly felt as if she had been doused with cold water and didn't know what to say.

"So, what exactly happened back then? And how did you become like this over the years?"

"Eileen."

"!"

Sylvie's voice fell like a thunderclap.

Millie, startled, was instantly brought back to "reality".

And just as the middle-aged Sylvie and the teenage Millie locked eyes.

Suddenly, the entire "market" began to shake violently.

(End of this chapter)