Chapter 840
Chapter 840
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 840
Chapter Title: Deneb's Circumstances (4)
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1.
"What rootless city treats a queen of a nation like this? It makes no sense! To top it off, treating my official national letter like it's from some half-baked witch. I will absolutely never forget this humiliation!"
Lurye's cheeks were puffed out like balloons.
Every time she stomped her feet with a thud, her mana rippled visibly. She seemed utterly furious.
Just five minutes earlier, Lurye had been denied entry to the Esoteric Library right alongside Siu.
Lurye had protested Metis's decision with lines almost identical to the ones above.
The problem was that her protest came off as arrogant and rude, on the level of an entitled complainer.
Not even Sharon's attempts to hold her back made much difference.
'Is that so? Can't be helped, then.'
Even in the face of Lurye's rampage, Metis neither lost her temper nor flushed with anger.
Instead, without so much as blinking, she refunded Lurye's donation right there on the spot and promptly revoked her viewing privileges as well.
In the end, Siu and Lurye had both been chased out of the Esoteric Library, standing side by side.
"Siu, do you know who I am?"
"The legitimate heir to the great Nukelabi Dynasty, Lady Lurye Nukelabi."
"Exactly. So just ask me once. I'll flood that entire library and drown that cheeky curly-haired witch."
"Please hold back, if only for my sake."
"Ugh!!! Hurry up and ask already!"
Lurye twisted her lips, then seemed to tire herself out as her shoulders slumped.
"I'm sorry. I truly wanted to help..."
"No, I know what you meant by it."
Siu patted Lurye's back to soothe her. Meanwhile, even the ever-gentle Sharon was fuming right beside them.
"What kind of ridiculous rules are those? Do they have any idea how amazing Siu is? Talking like they know everything...! I thought all countesses were supposed to be impressive, but apparently not!"
"Why are you so worked up?"
"Of course I'm mad! They won't even acknowledge you as a witch!"
Siu knew exactly what she meant.
In witch society, the most noble bloodline was that of a 'witch'.
Any other human—even the most accomplished—was looked down upon from above.
Among the rigid traditionalist witches, there were even those who disdained them so thoroughly that they wouldn't deign to hold a conversation.
To Sharon, it felt no different from watching her boyfriend suffer racial discrimination right in front of her eyes.
"I'm filing a complaint! City hall, right? Isn't it funded by the taxes I pay?"
For the record, Gehenna's city hall didn't hold much real power.
The Esoteric Library's operating funds came entirely from donations as well.
"So frustrating! They're completely close-minded front and back... Siu, let's never set foot in a place like that!"
Every time Sharon—who rarely ever got angry—huffed and puffed, Amelia's shoulders shrank just a little more.
It was because Countess Metis's attitude didn't feel like something that had happened to a stranger.
In truth, Amelia herself had once tormented Siu with that exact same rigid, inflexible, witch-supremacist demeanor.
Siu, who was too busy consoling the fuming Lurye and Sharon to notice the quiet Amelia's unease, spoke up.
"It's fine. We were only planning to go together tomorrow anyway, so it'd look suspicious if I suddenly ducked out alone."
"Still..."
"Really, it's okay. I'll figure something else out."
A moment ago, Countess Gremony's stuffy aura had naturally evoked thoughts of a 'boomer,' but her words weren't entirely off-base.
Siu truly hadn't contributed anything to the Esoteric Library.
He had no money to donate, either.
From the perspective of the prideful Countess Gremony, trying to tag along by borrowing someone else's influence might have come across as rather unseemly.
That said, one thing still nagged at him.
"Lady Amelia."
"Yes, Siu?"
Amelia replied in a subtly downcast tone.
"Does the head librarian really have that much authority?"
"Yes. Half the Esoteric Library's collection was gathered over generations by the 'Witch of the Arcane Tomes,' the Gremony Countess family.
Countess Metis Gremony is the one who opened the library to advance witchkind... Even though ownership was transferred to the two academies, she still retains considerable authority."
"I see..."
With things as they stood, there were two options.
One was to cleanly give up on entry and leave the investigation to Sharon and Amelia.
In the meantime, Siu could focus solely on improving his specs and his research.
The other was to try submitting a paper.
It wouldn't be difficult.
He just hadn't submitted any yet, but the research data he'd accumulated so far was quite substantial, wasn't it?
If he polished it up a bit and submitted, he might just earn entry privileges. No harm in trying.
This would be a good chance to systematically organize the foundational framework of magic as a whole.
"For now, I'll leave the Esoteric Library to you, Lady Amelia and Sharon."
"What about you, Siu?"
"I'll head over to Trinity Academy for a bit."
For the first time in ages, his passion as a scholar was reignited.
2.
The flower of scholarship: the academic paper.
Since magic was a field of study too, it was fair to say that the pinnacle of magical research lay in papers.
The quick-witted might raise this question here.
'What? Don't witches each research their own autonomous magic? Do they even need papers from other witches?'
It was a perfectly reasonable point.
Autonomous magic was, quite literally, magic that completed itself independently.
This magic, handed down through generations, left no room for outside interference.
Even a rank-20 great witch would struggle to comprehend most of a rank-15 witch's autonomous magic.
But one thing could be stated with certainty.
Knowledge sharing among witches was immensely useful.
If the current state of research on countless witches' autonomous magics were visualized as a single image, it would take the form of a sea urchin.
A central sphere, from which spines protruded sharply in all directions, each of varying lengths.
Each 'spine' represented the unique achievements of an individual witch, while the 'sphere' was the foundational knowledge that nourished them all.
Sharing papers expanded the size of that 'sphere.'
It enriched the common approaches, inspirations, and formulas available for magic that anyone could draw upon.
To use a crude analogy, it was much like how advances in 'natural sciences' led to breakthroughs across applied fields like astronomy, architecture, and biotechnology.
"Well, anyway. This ought to do it, right?"
With that in mind, Siu stopped by the research lab in the Jemernai mansion and pulled out one set of research data that seemed broadly applicable.
Paper lengths varied wildly by field—from a few pages to an entire book's worth—but magic papers tended to be especially hefty.
The material Siu selected clocked in at nearly 400 A4 pages.
All he had to do was tidy it up a little and slap on a flashy, light-novel-style title.
"Alright, then..."
Siu headed straight for Sophia Abenu at Trinity Academy.
When it came to papers, who better than a professor?
He'd written a few himself, but for a proper witch-format magic paper, consulting an expert was the smart move.
As chief professor and a great witch to boot, Sophia Abenu was perfect for the job.
"Hasn't changed a bit here, either."
The academy corridors stirred up a flood of fond old memories, even after all this time.
He always felt the same way—like he was visiting his old military base after discharge.
Memories of tears and laughter, how that tree had been pruned, how that drainage ditch had been dug... Ruminating on it all, he arrived at the research building in no time.
"Pardon the intrusion."
"Come in."
He'd worried their schedules might not align, but she answered right as he knocked. Not surprising, though—most witches spent their days immersed in research.
Opening the door revealed the voluptuous older sister with flowing purple hair: Amelia's best friend, the one who'd quietly helped Siu back in his slave days—Sophia.
"Well, well, what brings you here? I can't even ask if you've been well, with all the incidents you've been tangled in."
Sophia greeted him with a face full of delight.
Even after so long apart, the slightest motion sent her ample bust jiggling aggressively.
"I need some help with something."
Sophia shot up from her seat at his response.
She looked just like an intern who'd been hovering, waiting for a task, and finally spotted one.
"I've been waiting for a day like this. Have a seat first? Coffee or black tea?"
"Black tea, if you would."
Sophia owed Siu one.
Or more precisely, she felt unilaterally indebted to him.
The bad blood between Amelia and Siu had all started because of Sophia.
But without her, they wouldn't have the relationship they did now.
On top of that, she'd quietly looked after him with subtle care back when he was a slave.
Siu didn't dwell on the past, so he'd never once thought, 'Time for payback!'
"Here, I brewed the finest leaves. Fancy some milk tea?"
"Pardon? No, thank you."
He hurriedly stopped her as she began fumbling at her clothes.
He could guess exactly what sort of 'milk' she planned to add.
It might look like a joke at first glance, but it was her own way of expressing her regrets.
"You're as mischievous as ever."
"I just wanted to repay a debt I could never settle with my body, that's all."
"I don't see it as a debt. Besides, Amelia would be furious."
"True enough."
Sophia giggled, covering her mouth.
"So, what is it you need from me? Anything at all—spill it. I'll do my best."
Siu laid out the whole story for the eager Sophia.
Meeting Metis at the Esoteric Library and getting shut out at the door.
Deciding to submit a paper to earn viewing privileges fair and square.
He'd read through his materials a few times but had no experience formatting a proper magic paper to witch standards, so he wanted her help.
"I figured a solid paper for the Esoteric Library might do the trick."
"Ah, got it—that's the help you need? You came to the right place."
Sophia nodded.
But unlike her earlier enthusiasm, a hint of embarrassment crept into her expression.
"Is it that tough?"
"Hmm... Tough if it's tough, easy if it's easy. On average, I'd say it leans tough."
"In what way?"
Sophia coyly brushed her lips with a cute little gesture before speaking up with some difficulty.
"The trick is clearing the contribution threshold for Esoteric Library access. The evaluation is brutally strict."
"That hard, huh?"
"A single revolutionary, sensational paper can earn you viewing rights on its own. But that's rare, so most push through with sheer volume."
"Ballpark figure?"
"In a very, very typical case? Hmm, around 100 to 200 papers?"
"Oof..."
His confidence plummeted.
100 to 200 papers sounded absurd at first, but for witches spanning generations, it was no big deal.
Say a predecessor submitted 50, and their predecessor's predecessor another 50 under the same witch name—it all counted toward contributions.
But Siu was a total rookie witch.
No papers submitted by a master, and even roughly organizing everything he'd researched so far only came out to around 20.
Time was an absolute killer, too.
He already had a mountain of things to do—focusing solely on paper-writing offered too little return for the cost.
And did he have confidence he could whip up a single masterpiece worthy of entry rights?
Not even close.
"Guess I'll have to drop it. Thanks for the tea."
A shame, but some things you just had to let go.
"But you've come all this way—mind if I at least take a look?"
"Sure?"
"Yeah, you never know."
She was so willing to help that saying 'Nah, it'd be a waste of time...' felt rude.
Siu placed his draft—complete with its grandiose title—on the table.
"Here you go."
"On Combining Distinct Autonomous Magics: A Discussion of Repulsion Control Models via Phase Alignment. Nice title."
Sophia's long fingers flipped open the paper's first page.