Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

Chapter 1197: The old headmaster

[Eon's POV: ]

-Knock! Knock!

Right after finishing our talk with the presidents, the two of us went straight to the headmaster's office.

'The homeroom class for today was delayed so we will go there right after we are done here.'

The Headmaster's appearance today was quite surprising. I thought he would be absent today as well since he couldn't make it for yesterday's announcements.

Yesterday was an important day but today was more important for the rest of us. He had also been absent for quite some time now so seeing as how he had been away for so long, the work he was doing must have some significant impact on the world, right?

"You can come in." A voice was heard from the other side so Rein opened the door and we went straight inside.

"Welcome, welcome. Have a seat, you two." The headmaster's office was still the same, with his desk now full of papers.

"Quite the work you've piled up, you lazy headmaster." Rein wasn't going to miss this chance to make fun of him.

Even the headmaster knew he had been away for a little too long.

Vice headmaster might have looked after his work for a while, but even she could not do everything by herself. Even the presidents were away so all the burden must have been on her alone.

"You're the reason I was away and you're calling me lazy? How can you do that?" The headmaster looked genuinely sad right now.

There were dark circles under his eyes, something we had not seen before. And his presence looked a little weak as well.

[{ "He's been through a lot." }]

[{ "I can see that as well, dear." }]

Rein could see the lowered energy levels with her eyes. He wasn't just tired, he had been significantly weakened as well.

"Is it because of the puppet you made, headmaster? Does it take that much of a toll on your body or was it because of the fights you had with the evil forces?"

We sat down while asking those questions but the headmaster did not look up from the papers.

He needed to go through them as quickly as he could and now that he was back, and now that we were appointed in this position, we also needed to share this burden.

So, without waiting, Rein and I started going through a small pile as well… we already knew what to look for and what to do so even the headmaster didn't stop us this time.

"You're getting straight to the point while starting the work as soon as you become the council heads, huh? Even I didn't care much back when I was appointed as the president." There was no smile on his face this time.

He certainly seemed busy for now, so we did not say anything for the time being and continued helping him with his work.

The piles of documents on his desk were not the only thing that he needed to go through. There were many more piled right behind him.

"Huuu…"

The room was calm, the sound of scrabbling and writing filled the place. Papers fluttered as the winds from coming from the window behind us carried a calming breeze with them.

The headmaster did not say anything for the time being. He simply absorbed himself in his work, making the two of us a little worried about him.

"Headmaster…?" Rein could not help it after a few minutes had passed.

She called out to him while stopping her work, and when she did, when she showed her worried face that she usually doesn't, a helpless smile appeared on his face.

"It's nothing, you silly girl."

He looked up at her and instructed her to continue with her work with a simple nod. And only when she resumed, was when he started speaking up in a rather weak voice.

"I'm getting older, you two." His first words surprised us both.

This was unexpected. Hearing something like this from the person who had been the brightest, most handsome-looking person around us did not go well with us even though we knew it was the truth.

"There were times when fighting with beings of dark and evil, fighting with beings that threatened this world used to be a fun activity for me."

The way he was saying those things certainly reminded us how he was also a mortal at the end of the day, and one that had lived for more than a thousand years.

He was an archmage, he was a wizard– people who lived much longer than the usual humans– but he was also a simple person at the end of the day.

"When they attacked us at the island, I believed it was merely to steal something that did not belong to them. To get their hands on something that mortals should not possess.

However, I was wrong…"

The headmaster seemed serious. Since he wasn't looking up at us much and was simply continuing his work, the situation also seemed more serious than we believed.

"Chasing those people and fighting them. Finding them and getting help from others who also want to protect their world and people as much as I do… back in the day when battles with the divine beings used to be a common occurrence, we did not face as many difficulties as we do right now."

It did not mean the threats that they used to face had gotten stronger. Nor did it particularly mean the headmaster and the people like him, the guardians of their own domain, had gotten any weaker.

If anything, the headmaster had grown stronger. With the new knowledge and perspectives that he had gained, he should be more capable than he used to be in the past.

But the fact remained…

"The times are changing. The age of the new generation is approaching…"

He wasn't being serious but we had not seen him talk about such things in such a manner before.

This worried us more than the fact that the headmaster was weakened right now. Also…

[{ "What the hell is he on about?!" }]

[{ "I… want to know that as well." }]

Seeing the headmaster talk about all this confused us even more as well. We did not know what had happened with him when he was gone, but it did not seem to be anything good.

"Seems like you're confused and worried about me."

Finally, he stopped what he was doing, placed the last piece of paper on the pile that he had put down beside him, and cleared the rest of the piles from the desk.

"Eon, Reinelle…"

Now this was even more unexpected.

"You two have done well. And you certainly deserve to be in this position so I shall congratulate you first."

He didn't usually call us by our names when we were in the academy. He knew how we liked being called by the other names so… what is this situation?

"Headmaster, what's wrong? What's going on with you?" Rein asked him outright even though she knew she might not get a direct answer from him.

"Ah… it's nothing too big as of now." His bitter smile and those words clearly contradicted each other. Now I was almost getting scared for some reason…

The eyes in his eyes were dimmer than usual. Whatever might have happened to him had affected him quite a bit.

But still, what I can tell from the way he looked and the way he talked was not the fact that he was getting old, or how he had faced some unusual situation… it was the fear for the future that had not come yet.

"You two are too smart for your own good, you know?" Taking a deep breath and clearing up whatever might have been going on in his mind, the headmaster shook his head and looked up at us with a slightly positive expression.

"Calm down and don't worry too much. For me, at least. I don't deserve your worries." His sad expression indicated how he still didn't like how those evil god's puppets had managed to harm us on the island.

"What we should all worry about though…" His expression suddenly turned serious as well. "Is the approaching war that we have located the signs of."

"...?"

"What?"

A war…

If he was talking about wars after coming back from tracking down those evil gods, then this probably meant he was talking about not the war that we are going to have on this planet but a divine war that will be fought between the divinities and the worlds.

"It's as you might expect…"

The headmaster brought up a magical screen containing all sorts of information, most of which seemed absurd to both of us.

"It seems like there are forces within the divinities who do not want the stability that has been maintained over the past few millennia."

The information that the headmaster was revealing to us was not about this planet, any nation, or the evil cultists but the divinities and what the headmaster came to find during the time he was gone.

It contained information about the collaboration of forces that are usually at each other's throats, strange happenings throughout the divine realms, the movements of the demons in the underworld, as well as how there might be an undeniable threat to our lives on this planet.

"I don't want to say it, but it might just be unavoidable if we don't do anything about it."

The headmaster did not seem to know the reason behind this, his information contained what was happening and not why all of it was happening, making the information unfinished.

"However, we might be looking at a war between the divinities here. Something… that will harm our entire world in the events it actually takes place."

And he did not want that.

As the headmaster, he could not have us face danger from the divine beings.

It was his duty to protect this world. But…

"Headmaster? What did THEY say about this?"

He wasn't the only one with this duty.

There were more of them… beings more powerful than him.

Beings who themselves were divinities with significantly more authority than our poor, old headmaster.