Your Student Is Something Else (3)
I'm sorry, Professor.
It looks like this week will be difficult as well due to a prior commitment.
Please enjoy the party among the four of you.
From Idel
Professor Feynman swallowed a sigh. Today was Flans’s birthday, one of the lab members. Wearing a party hat, Flans stared at the cake studded with candles and muttered.
“Got another year older……”
“That’s not what matters right now. The junior says he’s not coming.”
“What? Again?”
“Yeah. Again.”
“He used to show up the moment you called him before.”
“Something must have come up.”
Flans tilted his head. Meanwhile, Feynman was lost in memories of the recent past.
Though calling them memories felt like an overstatement.
It had only been a few months since they co-authored papers together.
“Could he be interning at another professor’s lab?”
The moment he heard that, his heart sank.
Undergraduate poaching.
It wasn’t common, but it happened. Still, Feynman had believed he was safe. Idel had reached out to him the instant he entered the academy; his passion for this lab was unmatched. His talent was real. Would someone like that switch labs without a single word?
He must simply be busy. He would come back eventually.
“The professor looks really stressed.”
“It’s because the Rheinland junior isn’t around. He’s overthinking everything.”
A professor’s mood had a massive effect on lab morale. On top of that, Idel had shot up the ranks as Feynman’s favorite pupil.
“Man, I wish we were geniuses too.”
“Is that important right now? At this rate our graduation is going to be delayed!”
The three graduate students began to worry in earnest.
They reached a single conclusion.
They had to drag Idel back somehow.
“Hey, I’ve got a good idea.”
“What is it?”
“Hire a detective.”
Flans’s party hat crumpled.
“Where are we supposed to get the money for a detective?”
“Just hand it over to a newspaper then.”
At Mercury’s suggestion, they invited a reporter from the Interstellar Daily who had already expressed strong interest in the figure known as Idel von Rheinland.
“Hello everyone! I’m Sophia Krentelin from the Interstellar Daily. Please, just call me Sophia!”
The three graduate students explained the situation to the bold reporter. Sophia nodded enthusiastically, scribbling notes in her notebook. When she finally closed it, she answered with a bright smile.
“Recent-up-close interview with student Idel von Rheinland! Request received!”
Though she called it an interview, it was closer to a stakeout. Idel’s recent movements had become suspiciously elusive.
The three graduate students exchanged glances, then handed Sophia a white envelope.
“If he refuses the interview, give him this.”
It was pleasantly thick. She beamed.
“Can I take a commission fee?”
“There’s a separate share for you, Sophia. Here’s your advance payment.”
After checking her banking app, Sophia’s mouth fell open. The amount was far too high for a simple interview fee. In truth, it was the lab members’ own money, paid out of their pockets as an investment in their future.
They had nothing left…….
“May I ask why you’re going this far?”
At Sophia’s question, the three graduate students sighed and confessed.
“Graduation.”
“It’s on the line.”
“We’re counting on you, reporter.”
“Aah.”
Sophia let out a matching sigh.
It had been a few more weeks since I started working with Professor Stranoff. Final exams were right around the corner, yet the resonator was progressing so smoothly that I had no time to study. Who cared about exams at a time like this?
There had been plenty of trial and error along the way, but most of the technical flaws had been crushed under the combined weight of graduate student manpower, time, and cold hard capital. This was what a proper lab looked like.
Even so, the resonator’s development speed was absurdly fast.
“Did you mobilize outside contractors as well?”
My question must have been exactly on target, because Professor Stranoff’s lips curved upward.
“Time is money. Money is time. Just like how I bought Mr. Rheinland’s time with steak that day, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could simply purchase other people’s time and labor with money?”
“But bringing in external specialists would cost an absolute fortune.”
“Mr. Rheinland.”
She placed a hand on my shoulder and whispered.
“I told you. Our lab doesn’t worry about money.”
“Gasp.”
The power of capital truly was magnificent. What should have taken several months at minimum had reached ninety percent completion in just one month.
“The real issue is the theory that will reduce our trial and error,” Stranoff said. “Depending on how quickly we advance theoretically, this could take ten years or wrap up in a few weeks. So, Mr. Rheinland?”
It was finally my turn.
I accepted the physical property analysis data for the ‘Virgo’ crystal that Professor Stranoff had given me. From now on I would have to calculate, based on this data, exactly how to trap an Outer God inside the resonator.
A quick scan revealed something odd.
“There are impurities?”
“Correct. We’ll also need a method to reduce the defects.”
“But Professor, I’m not yet well-versed in condensed matter physics.”
“Hehe, I anticipated that much.”
When I came back to my senses, my arms were full of books. Fundamentals of Solid-State Physics, Basics of Optics, Materials Analysis Theory, Diffraction Theory, Ether Spectroscopy, Outer God Material Physics, Gravity and Materials Engineering, and countless others. The stack was worth at least several thousand credits in specialized texts.
“With your intellectual ability, Mr. Rheinland, I believe you can master them quickly. I’ve also slipped in a few papers and other materials.”
“……”
“Final exams are next week, yes?”
“Yes? Yes, Professor.”
“Study hard for them. I’ll see you once summer vacation begins. I’ll be waiting.”
“Thank you, Professor……”
Meals, money, and now an entire library’s worth of books. I had received far too much.
“I won’t see you off far.”
Despite her words, Professor Stranoff escorted me all the way to the main gate. I was moved for the second time that day. I shook my head.
Still, when it came to graviton bomb research, I needed Professor Feynman’s help. He was the only one I had. Yet Professor Stranoff was starting to look rather appealing too. Honestly, if you ignored her drunken outbursts, wasn’t she top class? No matter how I looked at it, choosing just one felt like a waste. Was there really no way to merge both labs?
“Huk.”
At that exact moment, a truly excellent idea struck me.
Once I returned to Stellarium, I dropped the books off at the dormitory and sat on the bed. I didn’t have time to rest properly. After loosening up my body a little, I repacked my bag for final exam preparations and headed out again. Come to think of it, I had heard today was one of the graduate seniors’ birthdays…… I could just send him a gift certificate later.
“Hello!”
The moment I stepped outside, someone called out to me. It was a reporter. She looked strangely familiar.
“Who are you?”
“It’s me, me! Sophia from the Interstellar Daily! Mr. Rheinland, we did an interview together before!”
I glanced around. No other reporters seemed to be lurking.
“What can I do for you?”
“I’d like to request another interview!”
Sophia immediately pulled out her notebook. Her determination to record every single word without error was palpable.
“I’m sorry, but it’s final exam season and I’m extremely busy.”
“Then could I borrow just the tiniest sliver of your time?”
She whipped out an envelope. The magical white envelope that symbolized bribes and slush funds. A light touch told me it was thick.
“Payment for the interview!”
“……Exactly how much did you put in there?”
“My utmost sincerity. For a future luminary of science, I felt this much coverage fee was only proper.”
I could receive the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of won for a single interview. I briefly weighed final exams against easy money. If I set a strict time limit, I could take the cash without derailing my study schedule. The optimal choice.
“In that case, gladly……”
The moment capital-corrupted me reached for the envelope—
“What do you think you’re doing?”
A petite girl shoved her way between us. Her amethyst eyes shook with open hostility, and her silver hair fluttered with flawless elegance. It was Zernya.
She looked back and forth between us with a haggard face, then spoke.
“Who are you?”
“Ah, I’m a reporter from the Interstellar Daily……”
“I didn’t ask your name. I asked what kind of person you are to be stealing my rival’s precious time.”
“Y-yes?”
“An interview? If you’re going to do it, at least avoid final exam season. Honestly, no basic manners at all.”
“……”
“Judging by your reaction, you didn’t even schedule a proper appointment?”
Zernya circled the reporter once, then snatched the envelope in the blink of an eye. She counted the bills with practiced speed and let out a derisive laugh.
“Only a thousand credits? Who do you think you’re fooling with pocket change?”
“Ah, that’s actually not my money……”
“Who asked about the funding source?”
Faced with Zernya’s carbonated-sharp tongue, Sophia completely lost her nerve.
“Stop wasting time on pointless interviews and take this instead. Got it?”
“Th-this!”
Five checks. For an ordinary person it was enough to buy a house. Zernya tossed that kind of money onto the street like used tissue without batting an eye. Sophia’s eyes spun.
“Off you go.”
“Excuse meee!”
And just like that, the reporter fled.
Zernya sighed and turned to me.
“Truly pathetic.”
“Me?”
“Is there anyone else here besides you and me?”
Her curt reply nearly earned her a knuckle to the forehead, but I managed to swallow my irritation by chanting patience three times in my head.
“An idiot who doesn’t even know his own market value. People with superior genes like you and me can’t afford to waste a single second. Yet you were about to throw away precious time on a nobody like that reporter?”
Wait, since when does a biology student go around talking about royal DNA?
The next moment, Zernya held out an identical check toward me.
“You should be worth at least this much. Understood?”
Her true feelings appeared only as psychological text.
‘Only then can I acknowledge you as my rival.’
What an adorably childish thought.
“Take this and come to the library with me. For the next week, until the results are out, let’s have a proper competition.”
“No thanks.”
Accepting money would have been nice, but I politely pushed the envelope back. Zernya stared at me in disbelief.
I tested her carefully.
“A friend’s time isn’t something you buy with money, Zernya.”
Sophia returned to her clients and gave a concise report.
“There’s a woman.”
The three graduate students let out deep, heavy sighs.
“She was ridiculously wary of me. Even after I said I was a reporter. Anyway, she told me to take this and get lost.”
Sophia peeled off thirty thousand credits from the five hundred thousand she had received and handed it to the graduate students—an apology of sorts for failing the request.
“Whoa, research funds!”
“Damn it, junior! When the hell did you get a girlfriend like that?!”
“I want to meet a woman who hands out research money too.”
Sophia felt a shiver run down her spine at their conversation. The room was warm, yet goosebumps rose across her arms.
“Anyway, keep up the good work.”
“Of course. We have no intention of stopping here. We’re staking the honor and future of our newspaper on this!”
Sophia left the lab with a bold declaration. For today, it was time to withdraw.
Before long, Professor Feynman heard the story from reporter Sophia.
“A girlfriend, you say? Rich, fierce attitude…… Could it be.”
Professor Feynman bit his nail.
“……Stranoff?”