System of the Beast Slayer [litrpg Adventure]
Copyright© 1999 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 276: The Genius in the Green Cloak
The party strolled along the path behind the Philosopher’s Gate.
The world beyond the gate was utterly different from a town built of ordinary buildings. It was nothing like the outside, where every inch of land was fought over like coin on a gaming table.
Everything was laid out with delicate, distinctive care. It was as if they had stepped back several centuries, walking through a hidden enclave cut off from the world.
“Most of Oxenfurt Academy’s buildings still preserve the look they had under elven rule. Have you heard that part of history? Like Vizima, Oxenfurt is a city built atop elven ruins.”
Roy nodded and looked around. They had entered a broad alley paved with colored gravel. On either side stood pleasing little palaces, openwork fences, walls, hedges, canals, bridges, flowerbeds, and green parks. Only in a few places rose large, rough mansions, clearly built after the elves had left.
Everything looked clean, peaceful, and solemn.
There were none of the noisy, calculating merchants and peddlers from outside.
Students gathered in twos and threes between the alleys, reading thick books and parchment manuscripts with grave concentration. Others sat on lawns, benches, and among flowerbeds, discussing holiday assignments or playing little games of wit like “Who Is the Murderer.”
Professors of the Academy also wandered nearby, chatting earnestly or arguing with proper scholarly decorum.
“That is Professor Rinde of the Faculty of Innovative Technologies...” Linus’s withered finger pointed toward a middle-aged man with a Mediterranean hairline and deep nasolabial folds.
“Opposite him is Professor Kausk of the Faculty of Applied Archaeology...” The archaeology professor seemed to have worked day and night until all his hair had fallen out, leaving him with a bare shining scalp. His clothing was especially plain, even shabby, standing out sharply from the well-kept teachers and students around him.
Roy considered that silently.
“Walking on the lawn is Lecturer Lotte Leitman from the Seminary...” Linus paused, his face suddenly turning awkward.
Roy followed his gaze. The handsome lecturer, around forty, was staring without blinking at the curve of a female student’s waist and hips. The girl held an oil-painting board, her skin snow-white, her features delicate.
“Ahem, ahem. He is probably considering the bodily proportions for a statue of the goddess Melitele. Forget it, let’s not speak of that bastard.”
The scholar led the Witchers swiftly through maze-like hedges and alleys. They passed a tall, square building beside a canal, and a rich smell drifted over, hydrogen sulfide, alum, and quicklime mingled together.
“The alchemy department’s teaching building. They conduct a great many experiments every day, studying all manner of chemical reactions.” Linus Pitt glanced at the distinctive building. “The place is filled with foul, stinging odors. It has severely damaged the air quality of Academy Island, and may even be harming the health of teachers and students.”
The bald Letho twitched his nose and shook his head. As an expert in alchemy, he held the opposite view. “Not enough to harm one’s health.”
Then he rubbed his chin and said with interest, “Judging only from the smell of the materials, their alchemy differs greatly from our school’s. If there is a chance, I must speak with the teachers and students there.”
“They are work madmen. They almost never leave that building, so meeting them is difficult.” The scholar looked worried. “But if the masters do manage to speak with them, perhaps help me ask what exactly they are tinkering with? I have always feared that one day, with a bang, Academy Island will be blown to pieces.”
Everyone smiled and left the alchemy department behind. They passed the mansion housing the departments of medicine and herbalism, where the alley leading to the teaching building was crowded with female students in distinctive pale-green cloaks.
A little girl in the crowd, perhaps around ten, with dark-red hair cut to her ears, caught Roy’s attention. She had a slightly upturned nose and a pair of lively hazel eyes. Slim of build, she walked with her hands behind her back, humming a nursery rhyme with an easy air, the tune bright and lilting.
Shani
Age: 11
Gender: Female
Identity: First-Year Student, Oxenfurt Academy of Medicine
“Shani, only eleven ... At this point in time, she is already at Oxenfurt Medical Academy. A little genius, just as expected.” Roy suddenly remembered that this world had no brutal ladder of primary, middle, and high school entrance examinations like the one before. It used an entirely different system for selecting students.
For a famous university like Oxenfurt, the first standard for admission was money. The costly tuition drove away ninety-nine out of a hundred aspiring students. Those lucky few with extraordinary talent were a different matter.
He considered whether to go over and greet this future great physician, Geralt’s close confidante.
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