Two days later.
The Blue Lake Other Shore Academy had been struggling over whether to attend the Academy Alliance's gathering.
The source of their dilemma was, of course, that too many Grand nobles remained within the Academy or had joined it. Those nobles, in turn, had an irreconcilable conflict with Reilo, the rising star who headed the Grand Natural Sciences Academy.
But in the end.
Considering the Academy's future prospects, the three deans decided to send a small, unimportant team to the gathering.
And since they were unimportant, the team was barely any larger than a group of ordinary tourists. They traveled aboard the oldest, shabbiest balloon airship and arrived near the X Advancement Academy only just before the gathering's deadline.
Whoooooosh...
Amid the Death Storm, Extraordinary Scholar [Sword of Victory] Sass gazed through the protective barrier at the dark, sunless, ceaseless storm. He checked the time. The gathering's deadline was noon today, and it was now around 10:00 a.m. At their current pace, they should reach the wind eye where the X Advancement Academy was located in five minutes at most.
His thoughts raced.
How could the Blue Lake Other Shore Academy continue to develop within the Academy Alliance? And what would become of him?
Sass was in turmoil.
Just then.
Ruuumble!!!
A violent surge of energy deep within the Death Storm startled him. He looked up, but all he could see was the same dim, murky expanse between heaven and earth.
At that moment.
Several scholars hurried out of the airship's control room.
A middle-aged female scholar came to Sass's side, her face full of alarm. "The energy reaction seems to have occurred about ten kilometers ahead. With the Death Storm blocking our senses, it's hard to imagine how powerful it must have been at that distance. I'm