Lab Tour (3)
One week had passed since the lab tour began. I'd spent most of it fending off an endless barrage of love calls from professors. Some labs had been genuinely interesting, others not so much, but none felt quite right for me. The bigger problem, though, was that my true interest lay somewhere else entirely.
How to build a graviton resonator—
“So our lab focuses more on theory and coding than experiments… Idel? Are you listening?”
“Ah, yes?”
I flinched, shrugging my shoulders. I’d been lost in thought far too deeply.
“Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. You probably already know everything, so it must be boring for you.”
Professor Feynman chuckled. Right now I was touring his lab alongside a group of other prospective graduate students. Why force us to do all of this? What a colossal waste of time.
The lab didn’t have any particularly impressive equipment. At best, there were a few supercomputers loaded with graphics cards more expensive than a postdoc’s annual salary. A common sight in theoretical physics labs.
“Shall we grab something to eat?”
Professor Feynman knocked on the door to the next room. Three haggard-looking men burst out in a frantic scramble.
“Food! It’s food time!”
“Huff, huff!”
“Professor, here’s the company card!”
The faces of the prospective students stiffened.
“Let me introduce you. From the left, these are Ian, Mercury, and Plans. They’re members of our lab.”
Yeah. Total chaos.
Even while walking to the cafeteria and ordering our food, my mind kept drifting elsewhere.
“Idel? Idel?”
“Yes?”
“Pick something from the menu.”
“Ah, right. I’ll have this one.”
I randomly pointed at something and moved on. Meanwhile, inside my head, Cartesia was belting out a full-throated aria of despair. It seemed I’d need to soothe her somehow.
“……”
When I closed my eyes, the world fell into silence. A sensation like water lapping at my feet washed over me, and I opened my eyes within a turbulent mental landscape. There, as always, was an Outer God deftly manipulating her glowing tentacles like extra limbs.
“Hey, kid.”
It was Cartesia. She approached.
“You’re strolling through my domain like it’s your own living room now.”
Step. Step.
“I don’t like it.”
Her fingertips brushed toward my chin. With a sharp whish, tentacles coiled around my arms and legs, binding me. She brought her face close.
“If your willpower and mental fortitude were anything like a normal human’s, I would have killed you instantly.”
I couldn’t see her face, but I could feel the smirk in her voice.
“Still, that part of you is what makes you interesting.”
“……”
“Listen, kid. If I wanted to, I could trap you here forever. I could stop your little plan to lock beings like me inside a graviton resonator before you even got started.”
She wasn’t bluffing. Cartesia was powerful. I glanced at the other Outer Gods groveling at her feet.
“Master, coins please. Coins.”
“Haaah… haaah.”
“Ahh, yes. Ahh.”
Those once haughty, arrogant deities had taken human form, dressed in maid outfits, and were now panting like slaves at Cartesia’s feet. A miserable existence, squeezing out fron just to survive another day. It was hideously pathetic.
“No need to feel pity. These are the ones who tried to kill you.”
Ting!
Cartesia flicked something like a coin. The spinning object landed on one of the Outer Gods’ tongues.
“Thank you, Master! Thank you!”
“Hand it over. That’s mine.”
“You two want to die? She gave it to me!”
What a mess.
By the way, the thing she just threw…
“A coin?”
“That’s right. A coin.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Want to know?”
Squeeze.
Pressure tightened around my bound limbs.
“Swear you won’t create that technology, and I’ll tell you.”
“Really? Then I don’t need to know.”
Cartesia’s expression softened. In the worst possible way. I still couldn’t see her face, but I could feel the rage boiling beneath it.
“So this is as far as we go, you and I.”
“You’re leaving?”
“There’s a saying: if the monk dislikes the temple, the temple should leave.”
“That’s backwards.”
“In this place, I am the temple, human.”
“Then I’m a fallen monk.”
Cartesia frowned.
“Fine. Let’s do this instead.”
I couldn’t just let my precious little calculator—no, my precious little Outer God—walk away like this. I quickly added,
“This research is only meant to keep Sapaul and the other Outer Gods in check. The graviton bomb project is going to take a long time. We need a contingency plan in the meantime, don’t we? You agree up to that point?”
“…Well, yes.”
“Then I swear. Even if I build the resonator, I won’t use it to trap the Sagittarius A* black hole.”
“How do you guarantee that?”
I smiled.
“Binding.”
“Ah. That’s right. There was that.”
Cartesia smiled back and flicked her hand. The tentacles released me, and my consciousness returned to where it belonged.
And then—
“Your mint pineapple omelet, sir.”
“What the—?”
A culinary abomination that barely qualified as food sat before me.
“Why did you order that?”
“Good question.”
I gave a vague reply and shoveled a spoonful into my mouth.
“Hmm.”
It was actually pretty decent.
Binding
A Descartes-type supreme skill that binds Outer Gods to Outer Gods, Outer Gods to Constellations, Outer Gods to humans, and so on through absolute contracts.
Once activated, it remains in effect until both parties mutually agree to dissolve it.
It enforces absolute adherence to the contract terms and imposes massive penalties for violation.
As the name suggests, it forcibly prevents either side from stabbing the other in the back.
─ Binding has been established.
─ ‘Idel von Rheinland’ must not use graviton resonator technology on the ‘Sgr A*’ black hole.
─ In exchange, the ‘Goddess of Wisdom and Curiosity’ must not leave Idel von Rheinland’s cerebral cortex until the day he dies.
─ If ‘Idel von Rheinland’ violates this, he will be eternally trapped inside the black hole where the ‘Goddess of Wisdom and Curiosity’ resides and forced to serve her as Master.
─ If the ‘Goddess of Wisdom and Curiosity’ violates this, she must surrender all the fron she has acquired from ‘Idel von Rheinland.’
It was an obscenely unfair contract. But when I thought about it, how many Outer Gods offered this level of convenience? No matter how I looked at it, I was getting off cheap.
[“You’d better keep your word.”]
I took Cartesia’s warning to heart and was about to board the orbital ascent shuttle when—
“Idel!”
Professor Feynman called out to me.
“Huff… huff. It really is you. Where are you headed?”
“Ah, well…”
I quickly spun a story.
“My girlfriend’s worried about me.”
“…Girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“You had a girlfriend, Idel?”
I don’t, actually.
“May I ask who it is?”
“It’s a secret.”
“If it’s a secret… I suppose I can’t press you.”
“Professor, of course research is still my top priority.”
I emphasized the word research.
“Haha.”
Feynman winked.
“I remember what I told you when you first contacted me.”
“You said I should try dating, right?”
“Looks like you took it to heart.”
Not really? I got dumped right before it could even begin?
Of course, we had shared a few papers and a few hot nights together.
“Professor, did you ever date during your school days…?”
“Almost never.”
And so began the tale of the deceiver—no, the professor’s romantic misadventures.
“……”
“Just like you, research always came first for me.”
What kind of person even exists like this?
“Do you regret it?”
“About half the time.”
“Was there someone you had feelings for?”
“There was one person, but we never ended up dating.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a secret.”
The fact that he wouldn’t say probably meant the answer would damage the other person’s reputation. I decided not to press further.
“Anyway, Idel. Travel safely.”
“It’s cold out. You should head back inside, Professor.”
And with that, we parted ways.
Sonia sat down beside me once I boarded the ascent shuttle.
“Young Master, was it really okay to say that?”
“It’s fine. I’m just going to check something and come right back.”
And so our half-day journey through space began. After passing through several warp gates, we finally arrived at—
“So this is Iryuel Academy.”
Someone was waiting for me barefoot at the main gate.
“Rheinland! You really came!”
It was Professor Calis Stranoff.
“It’s quite cold outside, isn’t it? Come this way, quickly.”
Sonia and I entered her lab using a high-pass clearance. Professor Stranoff hurriedly brought us cocoa. Usually this sort of thing would be delegated to a master’s student slaving away in the lab. Hmm. Her character passes, at least.
I took a sip. A sweet, rich aroma rose up, carrying a warmth that eased the tension brought on by the sudden drop in cosmic temperature.
“By the way, how was last week’s colloquium?”
“It was wonderful.”
Stranoff’s face brightened.
“Rheinland, are you usually close with Professor Feynman?”
“Yes.”
“I see. He’s known for having a good personality.”
She showered me with praise for Feynman as if emptying a bag of compliments, then guided me through the lab.
“I do both theory and experiments. Though I lean more toward experiments.”
The laboratory Professor Stranoff showed me was nothing short of magnificent. The room was as vast as an orchestra hall, lined with gleaming research equipment. She even had multiple dedicated chambers.
“This device measures gravitational strength with extreme precision. Over there is equipment designed to discover gravitons through ether fusion reactions. And that one is the gravity clamp we used when researching ways to reinforce the Ether Belt.”
“Ah, Professor, about that last paper of yours…”
“It’s fine. Academia is a competitive field, after all.”
She said that, but I could see her eyebrows twitching.
“What do you think of our lab?”
“It’s great. The equipment is top-notch, and the support seems excellent.”
A full bloom of a smile spread across her lips.
“Rheinland. We’re scientists. Neither of us likes beating around the bush, so I’ll ask you directly.”
She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me close.
“Would you consider joining me?”
Like an anaconda coiling around its prey, she wrapped herself around me and whispered.
“Here, you can pursue both theory and experiment to your heart’s content. The lab atmosphere is warm and friendly. Full lab funding, and a much broader research spectrum than Professor Feynman’s.”
She flicked her tongue like the serpent tempting Adam and Eve with the forbidden fruit. Her words flowed like water. Throwing shade at Feynman was just the cherry on top.
“Even if it’s only for the master’s program.”
Professor Stranoff pressed closer, as if she might bite my ear at any moment.
“How about doing your graduate studies at Iryuel Academy?”