Chapter 199 - [Side story]
[Side story]
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 199
Chapter Title: Side Story - A Graduate Student's Day (2)
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“Ugh.”
Barkran groaned as he looked down below.
Right now, he was in the sky. He didn’t know the exact height, but it was plenty high enough that falling would mean instant death.
Of course, he had an emergency anti-gravity device on him, so even if he did fall, nothing like that would happen. But could anyone really control their fear with reason alone?
Professor Jericho smirked as he watched Barkran like this.
“Is this your first time riding in a flying car?”
“Yes, Professor.”
Barkran was flying through the sky in a flying car with Professor Jericho.
This thing, the pinnacle of modern magical engineering, was ridiculously expensive, and the required license was a pain to get. It wasn’t something an average person could just hop into whenever they felt like it.
Of course, to this professor, none of that mattered much.
“You don’t have to grip it that tight. You won’t fall.”
“Yes……”
Even if he said that, Barkran repeated it to himself inwardly while squeezing the seat handle until his knuckles turned white.
The dark night, with streetlights whipping past—it was utterly surreal.
A barrier blocked the wind, so he couldn’t feel it, but at a glance, it seemed to be moving several times faster than a ground carriage.
“Is it okay to fly like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, aviation laws and all that. I thought there were rules against just flying around freely……”
If just anyone could buzz around the city skies like this, Munich’s airspace would have been pure chaos long ago. Ground-dwellers would’ve been constantly pelted with traffic accident debris.
He’d never ridden one himself because he was poor, but he knew enough that flying cars weren’t for casual joyrides.
“It’s fine. Do you know how much tax I pay to city hall? Worst case, I pay a fine and that’s it.”
Barkran stared at the professor’s chuckling face for a moment, looking like a madman, then shook his head. Well, as long as he wasn’t the one footing the bill for the fine, what did he care?
The elite ignoring the law was nothing new.
As he hung on for dear life like that, their destination soon came into view.
In the middle of a somewhat desolate wasteland, there was a wide-open hole.
The professor skillfully maneuvered the flying car inside and landed.
“We’re here.”
The place Professor Jericho had brought Barkran to was a museum. One dedicated to artifacts from the Ahital style, from the era when purification magic arrays weren’t complete yet and factions were still fighting each other.
Uniquely, the museum’s entrance was shaped like a vertical shaft going down.
“They say this used to be a desert long ago. They hid facilities deep inside to keep them secret from enemies. Funny story when you think about it now, right?”
“Well, unlike today, the ancient city-states in Munich Province back then were hostile to neighboring powers.”
“Oh right, you’re a history major. I didn’t need to explain. You know what this museum is, then?”
“One of the birthplaces of puppets, I believe.”
Puppets, the hands and feet of modern humanity, were magical creatures used worldwide.
From combat puppets with human-like appearances, superior physical abilities, and anti-magic resistance, to all sorts of variants.
Long ago, mages controlled these puppets in brutal wars of slaughter.
“You know your stuff.”
“I’ve been here a few times.”
Moments later, once the mana car landed, Barkran got out, clutching his shaky legs.
Before him stood a museum shaped like a red palace.
“No matter how many times I come, this place is always so dusty. Eh, come out, Eliya!”
At the professor’s call, the cargo compartment at the back opened, and someone popped out.
Unlike the startled Barkran, the professor calmly gave orders.
“I command you, Eliya. Guard this place. Subdue anyone who approaches. Lethal force permitted only against puppets if there’s a threat to my safety.”
The one nodding was the professor’s personal combat puppet for self-defense, named Eliya.
Silver hair falling to her shoulders, delicate features, a slender build unfit for a combat puppet.
If not for the magic guns in her hands and her solid blue eyes without whites, she’d be a beauty who’d turn heads anywhere.
These personal combat puppets for the wealthy were inferior to military ones but could easily handle ordinary people.
Naturally, they were another privilege of the rich.
“Good. With Eliya guarding, no one’s getting through for a while. Not even the police.”
“These self-defense puppets are that capable?”
“I modified her a bit. She can take on one or two standard military combat puppets. And that gun can punch through most anti-magic barriers.”
Professor Jericho boasted, then grinned like a kid showing off a toy. It was hard to picture a habitual lawbreaker from that face.
After blocking the entrance, they headed inside the museum.
The professor had already prepared to bypass the entrance security.
He pressed a key against the door, and it opened smoothly.
“How’d you get the front door open?”
“Money opens everything.”
Declaring it proudly, the professor grinned at Barkran and added,
“You’re here for the experiment because of money too, aren’t you?”
It was spot on, so Barkran just turned away and surveyed the museum interior.
He’d been here a few times before. Any history student around here had to visit for field trips.
“Hmm……”
A beautifully landscaped garden, lined inside with countless glass cases.
There were creatures inside the cases.
He called them creatures because nothing else fit.
Mixing features of ordinary animals, insects, even plants into forms so chaotic you’d doubt they could live—it was hard to name such things.
These were experiments from the dawn of bioengineering. Immortal procedures kept these pitiful beings alive as specimens for posterity.
“As a bioengineering professor myself, seeing these pioneers’ works gets my heart racing.”
The chattering professor pointed to a creature next to them, twice a normal person’s height at head level.
For some unknowable reason, heads were clustered where legs should be.
Imagining the thing alive and moving was nightmare fuel.
Past that was a plaza displaying early combat puppets.
Dozens of them surrounded the vast space in glass cases, staring this way. Dressed in classical styles.
The professor smiled at Barkran as he looked.
“I’ve set up an emergency defense using those puppets.”
“Huh?”
“If anyone breaks in after we’re inside, they’ll come out and block them. Those are cultural artifacts you can’t just smash, right? The police will have a headache. Don’t worry, no human-killing protocols, so no deaths.”
Leaving those chilling words, the professor hurried past the exhibits.
Barkran scrambled after him, and soon they reached the final destination: the library.
Once filled with books, most shelves were now empty—most had been recalled for censorship. Only cookbooks and personal diaries remained, relatively unimportant.
Standing in one corner, the professor carefully rummaged a empty shelf and opened a hidden door.
“Let’s go in.”
Inside was a secret lab. Mysterious metal machines flickering with strange lights—probably special magical devices for life sculpting. He’d heard about it, but seeing it set up was eerie.
Even for secrecy, damaging a museum wall like a cultural relic made Barkran, as a history student, feel guilty.
“Strip and lie on that bed. Set aside anything sensitive to mana.”
Barkran followed obediently.
He placed his mana disk and terminal for notes, pocket watch, and staff on the table, then stripped, folded his clothes, and set them down.
Moments later, the professor started attaching odd metal tubes to his body.
“Remember this. We’ll transfer your consciousness to that orb briefly. Then a short chat, and back to your body. Got it?”
“Yes, Professor.”
“Good. Don’t forget.”
Barkran eyed the reddish orb at the tube’s end. His consciousness in that tiny thing? Anxiety dried his mouth.
He’d already agreed, but hesitation surged. Was this really okay? Should he bolt now?
Sensing it, the professor declared,
“Now, close your eyes.”
Barkran shut his eyes and silently counted.
Hoping for just a short nap, to wake up fine.
No dying from this experiment, to return unharmed.
To use the pay, graduate safely, and become a tenured historian……
“Let’s begin.”
With the professor’s words, Barkran’s consciousness sank into darkness.
* * *
“……Ah.”
Barkran Kedow opened his eyes.
This morning didn’t start with footsteps like in that dream.
In perfect silence, he’d woken on his own.
“Urgh.”
Rising from bed, Barkran stretched long.
His first dream in this new body replaying memories from just before losing the old one—it felt unsettling.
Though that was now distant past.
“Let’s see……”
Barkran washed his face at the sink next to his room. The mirror above showed a somewhat unfamiliar face. Similar to his original, but subtly more handsome.
Personally, he was quite satisfied.
“Still so handsome.”
All men think they’re hot in the mirror, but as someone who’d changed faces, he could say this one was genuinely pretty good-looking.
It had been months with this face, but it still felt fresh and fun.
After indulging in self-admiration, Barkran changed clothes and left the room.
Time to work.
“Oh, Professor Barkran.”
“Good morning!”
Barkran cheerfully greeted his neighbors and walked on.
He lived in the capital’s inner district, once called Belluan Estate. His house was right next to the palace.
Thanks to that, every road was impeccably paved, buildings pristine as new.
Walking those flawless streets, Barkran grinned ear to ear. Anyone seeing would think him a bit dim—purely radiant.
Since gaining a body, everything delighted him. Warm sunlight, firm ground underfoot, cool breeze caressing him.
Only someone who’d lived fifteen years as a metal cat could understand Barkran’s ordeals.
How long had he walked in high spirits when a school of stately silver-gray brick welcomed him?
Royal Belluan High School. The first post-apocalypse higher education institution, attended by heirs of surviving noble houses and influential families.
And among its most noble students, one waved to greet him.
“Hello, Cat Professor.”
“Good morning, Princess.”
The greeter was none other than Queen Eloise and Chancellor Arsen’s daughter, the kingdom’s heir, Princess Priscilla.
Like her mother, her jet-black hair was neatly tied, her clear eyes a striking purple.
A very familiar eye color to Barkran.
“By the way, ‘Cat Professor’—you can’t say that. People might hear.”
She was one who knew him from his cat days.
Back when he was younger and still bound as a steel cat, he’d lectured her on ancient history. Like fairy tales, to spark a child’s interest.
Her history grades had always been stellar because of it.
“Got it. Still, it’s weird seeing you again. The professor I remember couldn’t even reach my knee.”
“Haha……”
In his steel cat days, this young princess had hugged and rolled with him like a real kitty.
Now suddenly a grown man—it was bound to feel off.
Then, a knight behind her spoke up.
“Princess, it’s class time.”
“Got it. See you later!”
“Yes!”
After sending her off, Barkran prepared in the staff room and headed to class.
Students for the first lesson were gathered: northern estate heirs, young knights from the west, promising young mages.
Diverse backgrounds, but one reason: to hear the world’s top historian, endorsed by the Belluan royal family.
Proud of that, Barkran stood at the podium.
“Good morning, everyone. Let’s begin.”
History Professor Barkran Kedow’s morning had started.