Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The Power of Nob AI
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Nob AI.
It was the artificial intelligence I'd enjoyed using right up until I got caught in that nuclear blast.
Truth be told, Nob AI didn't come loaded with any of those grandiose features you'd see in a sci-fi movie.
It was a program that could generate lewd images of my favorite loli characters, fix awkward grammar when I asked, and neatly summarize any questions I had into clear sentences.
I remember being so amazed when it first came out that I spent the whole day glued to my computer playing around with it.
If I hadn't died and had kept on living, maybe by the time I was around seventy, I'd have had a cute maid robot greeting me every day with, "Welcome home, Master."
I became aware of Nob AI's existence around the same time I awakened to my past life memories.
Honestly, I was pretty flustered at first.
The flood of memories pouring in like a torrent, combined with the hologram popping up in front of me like augmented reality—it was something I'd never experienced even in 21st-century South Korea.
I typed into the hologram.
『Display my current specs like a status window.』
『...』
『...』
─────────────◆
● Name - Esther Tristy
● Rank – Inferior
● Trait - [Nob AI]
The youngest of the Tristy family. Unlike
his other siblings, he did not inherit
the family's talents,
resulting in a terribly poor reputation.
He has now awakened to his past life...
...
...
You can use it something like this.
"Young Master?"
Dalpi called out to me.
I'd been so engrossed in Nob AI's interface that I'd forgotten there was someone right beside me.
"If the shock is too much and you're feeling dizzy, I can carry you back to your room."
"I'm perfectly fine right now."
"Is that so?"
I helped Dalpi up from the position she'd taken to carry me.
If anything, I was buzzing with anticipation.
Up until now, Nob AI had been tricky to apply to real life, but things were different here.
'Fucking hell, I'm absolutely not going to the military.'
The military was something you avoided if you could.
Did I have to go through that even in my second life?
No way in hell. Absolutely not!
I had no intention of becoming the Family Head anyway.
I just wanted to leech off the Tristy family's wealth and food until I grew old and died.
This mansion's library was stocked with tons of fun mass-produced novels.
I hadn't even properly read ten of them yet.
I wasn't planning to leave this mansion until I'd devoured every last one of those kindling books!
"Dalpi."
I stopped in front of my door.
"Yes, Young Master."
"From now on, don't come into my room until I say so. I'll handle cleaning and meals myself."
Dalpi stared at me with a look of utter bewilderment.
"Are you planning some kind of hunger strike?"
"I need to focus on the successor exam."
She looked genuinely worried for me.
Dalpi knew better than anyone how I'd lived my life as the unprecedented family reject.
"You should look for other options instead. Some things are just impossible. Even if you, who lack any magical aptitude, stare at the exam paper for a fortnight straight, it's not going to solve itself..."
I gave Dalpi a thumbs-up.
"Trust me."
Dalpi let out a sigh.
"...Understood."
With that, I entered my room.
Alright, time to put Nob AI to work.
***
I sat down at my desk.
I gave Nob AI a command.
『…….』
『…….』
Artificial intelligence was a system equipped with human-like functions such as learning, reasoning, adaptation, and argumentation.
To operate AI properly, vast amounts of data were required.
Even after accumulating massive datasets back on Earth, Nob AI wasn't satisfied.
It had spent fifteen years by Esther Tristy's side, absorbing knowledge about this world, and now knew how to make full use of it.
The reason Nob AI could gather this world's knowledge was that Esther Tristy had frequented the library without fail before awakening to his past life.
Unlike his siblings, the frail and dim-witted boy had only one thing he could pride himself on: diligence.
'You think you'll understand it just by looking at it?'
'It's pointless for someone who can't even use basic magic to read intermediate spell theory tomes. Why not put it down right now and grab a fairy tale from that shelf over there?'
The Tristy siblings saw each other as rivals.
Having inherited their father's talents, each had a specialty they honed in pursuit of becoming Family Head.
Esther Tristy was different.
To his siblings, Esther was nothing more than a tool to boost their self-esteem.
They mocked him for failing to use magic despite being a talentless commoner.
When he practiced swordsmanship alone, they'd beat him under the pretense of "guidance." At social gatherings, they'd point out his etiquette to embarrass him.
Esther Tristy's pillow was always soaked with tears.
No matter how much Dalpi washed it, the stains never fully came out.
Even now, after awakening to his past life, it was the same.
『At the 321st line from the right, adjust the mana density to 5.23153 to recreate a mana environment identical to hell's...』
Esther Tristy's efforts hadn't been in vain.
The boy's desperate attempts to keep up with his siblings by reading difficult books had ultimately trained Nob AI, which was now producing results.
Well, to be fair, the bulk of Nob AI's training came from me stuffing it with the contents of every book in the library over the past fortnight.
I didn't think that was unfair.
As described in the status window, Nob AI was legitimately my talent.
Jealous? Then reincarnate yourself.
***
Aria leaned back in her creaky chair.
The stacks of papers on her desk towered like mountains, giving her a throbbing headache.
For someone juggling lectures, magical research, financial planning for retirement, and essential social activities to secure a professorship, reviewing academy financial approvals was an utter chore.
'At least for the successor exam, Porto's clear instructions made it easier.'
The selection of the Tristy family successor.
This was a major event for Aria, who worked at Tristy Academy.
To her, the absolute authority wasn't the king—it was the Tristy Family Head.
In autonomous territories, lords wielded near-absolute power akin to kings.
The older the territory's history, the stronger the lord's authority within it became. In some cases, the lord held more power than the king—and Tristy was exactly that.
The Tristy lord could exert pressure and provide support to every institution in the territory.
'If I fall out of favor with the chosen successor...'
Her professorial career would end there.
In the worst case, her assets in the territory could be seized, leaving her penniless and forced to return to the Crimson Tower.
"Porto is so strange. Out of all things, he sets a 'Millennium Problem' that even past Tower Lords couldn't solve as the successor exam..."
Magic's possibilities were infinite, but human potential was not.
The number of spells a human could research in one lifetime was finite, so schools of magic formed to study and advance it more efficiently.
The Flame School, where Aria currently belonged, was a faction dedicated to flame magic research.
Based in the Crimson Tower, it was an elite branch boasting top-tier legitimacy and influence—third in the kingdom's magical hierarchy.
The Millennium Problems were seven unsolved challenges posed by the Flame School to advance kingdom magic.
The "Hellfire Recreation" set for this successor exam was one of them.
'I get the intent, but it's too much.'
Porto had probably asked her to set it to see how the successors handled an impossible problem.
'The candidates, barely adults, must be panicking. There was that sickly but knowledgeable-looking genius, but... who knows.'
Just reading and understanding the problem would be a challenge.
Some candidates were as young as fifteen.
Aria didn't expect any of them to bring back an answer.
Even she and her mentor couldn't solve it.
Simply parsing the equations and text in the problem showed remarkable talent.
"Professor Aria, a letter for you."
Her assistant, with dark circles under her eyes, opened the door and entered.
"Where's it from?"
"From the Tristy mansion. Young Master Esther Tristy says he's solved the exam problem..."
'Already?'
Only two days had passed.
Esther was the Tristy family's youngest son.
Unlike his siblings, he was the ugly duckling with no talents whatsoever.
His reputation was poor, so Aria hadn't paid him much attention.
His chances of becoming Family Head were practically zero.
'He gave up, huh.'
Aria sighed.
She'd at least expected him to put up a show of effort.
"Leave me."
"Yes."
Aria didn't read the letter until she'd finished all her work.
Only late into the night could she finally lift herself from her chair.
As she grabbed her coat and rose to leave, her eyes fell on the letter.
If the paper inside was blank, she planned to reprimand him harshly for his rude and defeatist mindset.
It would help whatever remained of Esther's life.
Aria read the letter.
"......???"
Her expression froze.
For a long while, she sat in her private office, eyes darting over the letter.
"Professor... Is something wrong?"
Her worried assistant knocked cautiously and entered.
Aria spoke to her assistant in a grave tone.
"Summon every professor still at the academy right now."
"Pardon?"
"Right now!!"
"Y-Yes!!"
Startled by Aria's sharp command, the assistant bolted out.
With trembling hands, she set the letter down.
She glanced at the mirror.
Had she ever been this rattled since becoming a professor?
"The Millennium Problem... solved...?"
What exactly was she looking at?
The letter contained...
Writing as if the demon of magic itself had meticulously penned it to mock foolish humans.
An impeccably beautiful and perfect solution.