The Magic Academy's Physicist

Chapter 231: You Have The Wrong Person (2)

It was a clear day without a cloud in sight.

“One Kaurelicano, please.”

Cecil was sitting in a cafeteria. As she sipped on her coffee, she flipped through the paper that she didn’t get to finish reading yesterday.

[About the Relationship Between Elementals and Magic Elements]An experimental paper dealing with Elemental theory.

Some doctor who applied for a teaching position at Iliad Academy had submitted for reference.

Cecil hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of this paper for some time.

It was perfect beyond her imagination.

It couldn’t have been better in terms of content, and even in terms of formality it was clean without any unnecessities.

Most of all, the subject of the article was researching ‘Elementology’ which was a subject of interest for her, so of course she’d read it with interest.

The better the paper, the more questions it drew from the people who read it. Cecil wanted to meet the author as soon as possible.

Ding-a-ling.

Just then, the door to the cafeteria opened and a black-haired woman walked in.

The lady with red eyes was in a dress shirt and slacks. Her skin was white and fair, and her hair was tied up in a single ponytail, hanging low. It was a simple yet formal dress.

She looked around, then came over after spotting Cecil. Cecil got up immediately and offered her hand.

“Hello, you must be Dr. Asteya Heisenberg.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“It is an honor to meet such an important person.”

“The honor is mine to be meeting the president of Iliad.”

The two exchanged a light greeting and sat down.

“Would you like anything?”

“I’d like beryl.......”

“Beryl...?”

“Berry smoothie, if they have?”

“They have a blueberry one.”

Cecil led Asteya to the kiosk.

“Ah, I can pay for it myself.”

“Have you used it before?”

“Yes.”

Cecil was secretly impressed.

Because unattended transactions using kiosks was the latest system used only in the area of the capital.

Her hometown was in the southeastern Empire, and it seemed she had visited elf country many times. She must be from a well-to-do family.

As she thought that, Asteya adeptly ordered the smoothie and then sat down.

“I came for an interview, but I didn’t expect it would be in a café like this.”

“Such are the times, I’m afraid. I currently have full control over faculty hiring decisions.”

“So everyone both above and below trusts you.”

“Yes, for now.”

There were those who accused of personnel corruption, but what could they do? Hardly anyone was applying for the faculty position.

If anything, they had to run around to find people like the owner of a mid-size company right now.

“It’s called an interview, but there’s nothing much. You’re actually hired.”

“...What do you mean by that.”

Cecil waved the paper Asteya wrote and gave her a pleased smile.

“You’re quite talented so I’ll just ask a few things and we’ll be done.”

It wasn’t anything else–she just needed to check that this paper wasn’t written by someone else.

Cecil skimmed over the paper and asked her questions one by one. Asteya answered immediately without hesitation.

“...For that reason, if you just find the Lagrangian density related to Elementals, you’ll be able to figure out the entire system.”

“And you’ve only established the density for Fire Elementals at the moment, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Asteya nodded.

“All magic elements have a corresponding Elemental. Conversely, there is no mana if there is no Elemental. In theology, they call Elementals mediums for the Goddess’ words and revere them, but from the perspective of thaumaturgy, they are merely a physical quantity that maintain mana symmetry.”

The paper called this ‘Noether’s theorem’.

She didn’t know why the name was Noether and not Heisenberg, but Cecil just accepted it as is.

“Huhu.”

Anyway, Cecil satisfied all of her curiosity. A chuckle spilled from her mouth.

“The fundamentalists of the L’Quinneth Order would go insane if they heard what you said.”

“And are you fine with this, President?”

“Understanding magic is listening to the Goddess’ words. Even if I were to praise, I’d be praising the Goddess; there’s no need to be mentioning the Elementals.”

Above all, Cecil’s faith wasn’t that deep. Seeking the Goddess whenever things were rough was nothing more than an idiomatic expression.

She wasn’t the religious type in the first place. It was better to kill another Beast and find ways to destroy them rather than think about those things.

Of course, faith and baptism were separate, so Cecil hit the jackpot after resuming bathing in the ‘Fountain of Elementals’.

“Anyway....”

Cecil’s pupils bled into a fresh leafy green.

“That’s it for the interview. I’m honored to be working with you, Professor Heisenberg.”

“...No, the pleasure’s all mine.”

The two stood up and shook hands.

Cecil and Asteya were both smiling wide.

A room that was a little over 16 m2. It was livable enough for a person. At least, it was far better than the time she used to be stuck in the shed.

It was a strange thing–to think that she who had been a slave to a professor up until a year ago was now one herself.

“And so it begins.”

So what if it was like this or that.

The world was going to end soon anyway so on that note, something like a job was pointless.

The longest she’d be a professor here was for a year. In that time she was going to execute every plan that she had prepared and burn the World Tree.

If she achieved her goal, then she’d be able to develop Dark Day in peace while the Demon Army was at war with the rest of the world. She had been thinking of wiping out the Demon Army, too, anyway, so it was indeed using barbarians to control barbarians. It was the best plan.

And as she was thinking, there was a knock at the door.

[Professor, can you come out right now if you’re free?]

“I’ll be there.”

Aether answered immediately and opened the door.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry, but I need you to start working right away as the school is a mess.”

The corners of Aether’s lips curled upwards.

That was what she had been thinking to do anyway, because the goal was to fit into Iliad seamlessly.

“What would you like me to do?”

“It’s to do with admissions.”

This was how the first assignment was formed.

Due to the attack of the Great Mecha Octavus, Sea Dragon Leviathan, Iliad had suffered a great deal of damage.

Because of that, they weren’t only lacking in professors. Quite a number of students also died or were wounded so there was a gap this year.

At this rate, there was going to be a problem with training mages in the future. Iliad was also a military school, after all. If they couldn’t fill up a year, then they’d have to consider the possibility of the southern island chain collapsing.

“The new admissions have competition so we just need to accept a lot of them, but.......”

“The problem is the transfers, then?”

“Yes, exactly. I think we have to recruit new second and third years especially.......”

“So you’re saying that there are no free admissions officers because something like this has never happened since the academy was founded.”

“Ah, yes.... That’s also true.”

As expected of a first assignment, it wasn’t that difficult, although it did feel like she was being given the tedious work.

Aether smiled kindly and answered in the affirmative.

“Ah, also.”

The president’s eyes looked unusual.

“I’d like you to be the homeroom of the gifted class next semester.”

“The gifted class...?”

She had made sure to look into it when she came to Iliad Academy. There was no concept of a ‘gifted class’ at Iliad, because they didn’t really distinguish between ranks.

But gifted class?

“Some of the students we are putting together after transferring are from Tilette. It’s not apartheid or anything, just that we’re gathering those who came as exchange students and are going to study here the next semester as well. Between the elves, beastkin, and more coming from Tilette, the class might be quite chaotic. Still, I think you, Professor Heisenberg, a human, are the right person for the job. I’m sorry to say....”

Her head felt like it was overheating.

I was going to have to teach brats?

When she had only thought to give just enough trust, get research funds and work on Dark Day?

Like this, the timing of the plan was going to be disrupted. This could delay her schedule. She had to ask what was happening.

“The exchange students from last semester are staying for another? I’m sorry, but I don’t understand at all.......”

“Right, I haven’t told you yet.”

Cecil took out a crumpled paper from her pocket–an agreement to push for a temporary merger between Tilette and Iliad.

“What the.”

She barely managed to stop herself from cursing.

Tilette and Iliad were now one school? It was something she had never imagined.

“As I said earlier at the café, such are the times.”

In a word, this was what President Cecil Renay was saying.

Dualized campus.

Although she had been appointed as a professor of Iliad, she was also a professor of Tilette at the same time.

“Um, let’s say the Empire has permission from the Emperor. Did you think about the public opinions of the families or citizens here when you went ahead with the merger?”

At the subtle question, President Cecil smiled rather bitterly.

“...So it was a rash administration.”

“I am getting a bit flamed for that. Still, there wasn’t much opposition from the students when we asked them, you know?”

“Th-then it’s fine....”

If Cecil dealt with things carelessly like this, it would be advantageous, rather. A meticulous and skeptical president would only be a headache.

“I do get egged a lot, thanks to that. I lost a suit yesterday, too.”

“If I may ask, is it because of something political?”

Although it was a comment that could be considered quite rude, she was curious. To think that someone who was the president of Iliad was being egged regularly... if this wasn’t intentional on the protesters’ part, then there was no other explanation.

But Cecil waved her hands.

“Not at all. As a mage, what politics? I was only protecting someone and am getting backlash for it.”

“Who did you protect?”

“The Golden-Eyed.”

The atmosphere of the elf country, which had darkened significantly from Leviathan’s attack, had changed with the ‘Steam Rain’ incident in the Empire.

At first, Tilette had also been in mourning. Those awful Beasts. Yet another tragedy. Many elves cried for them as tragedy was repeated.

However.

“Rumors went around that the one who destroyed Tilette Academy was a Golden-Eyed, funny enough.”

From that moment, the atmosphere of mourning turned into a scene of fury and hatred.

It wouldn’t have mattered if they had been angry at the Beasts, but the target was the Golden-Eyed who did nothing wrong.

The Golden-Eyed who had settled in Kaurelia began being subjected to hate crimes. There had been racial discrimination towards minorities before, but that had largely disappeared after democratization and pluralization.

And since it was the first big incident in a while–

Now it wasn’t only the High Elves; even the common Wood Elves believed that the Golden-Eyed were conspiring together with the Demon Army.

After hearing about the situation, Aether spoke blandly.

“...It could be true.”

It wasn’t wrong, exactly.

Because the Demon Army was a survival right formed by Golden-Eyeds who tolerated over and over and over again, and finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“Still, it doesn’t make sense to put down all of the Golden-Eyed. It could be a scheme of division, as Beasts are craftier than we think.”

“But someone like yourself shouldn’t have to suffer because of this.”

Aether replied indifferently. They were all going to die anyway.

“No, I need to set this right as the president of Iliad.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because we have a Golden-Eyed student.”