The Professor's Apartment
Stellarium’s additional interview process consists of three distinct tracks: Academia, College, and Graduate. The Academia track I applied for is the equivalent of high school. Academia students study aboard an artificial planet that resembles a Death Star. Only the College and Graduate students continue their education on natural planets.
In other words, Stellarium is one massive educational foundation. The Stellarium Academia and College programs are essentially a single enormous facility and brand established by that same foundation.
At any rate, Academia is taught by teachers. That’s subtly different from College, where professors teach. Naturally, the educational structures of the two tracks are completely different as well.
And the person I’m about to meet right now is a professor, not a teacher.
Most of Stellarium’s professors live in apartments on the College planet. Cases like the Rheinland family, where an entire warship serves as their home, are rare.
After a long journey, Sonia and I finally set foot on solid ground.
“Ugh.”
“Please be careful. The platform is slippery.”
It had been so long since I last stood on real earth that my whole body swayed.
“It hasn’t been that long since your fever broke. Are you sure you aren’t pushing yourself too hard? This Sonia is quite concerned for Young Master’s well-being.”
“I’m just dizzy, that’s all… dizzy…”
It’s not as if warp technology doesn’t exist in this era. It’s simply prohibitively expensive. When traveling the distance between a moon and a planet like this, riding a shuttle back and forth is far cheaper.
I had taken other ships several times before. The most common reason was to take mock exams at the academy Ceti attended. But this time, I just couldn’t seem to adjust.
“A real planet really does feel different.”
Even enduring the landing had been grueling. It affected bone density, too. If your body couldn’t keep up, you couldn’t travel between planets at all.
And I was still frail.
“Ow.”
A sharp pain shot through my ankle with every step.
“Are you all right?”
“No, I’m not.”
“You should exercise a little more diligently.”
“I already promised Rustilla that once I get back today, I’d ask her to be my personal trainer.”
“…You mean that young lady from the Kersil family?”
Sonia frowned slightly, an expression unusual for her.
Rustilla had apparently done well on her interview, and ever since then the distance between us had shrunk considerably. At the very least, it was safe to say we had become friends.
“It’s good that Young Master has made a friend knowledgeable about exercise… but please receive proper health care from professionals. Have you already forgotten the time you were beaten with a wooden sword and passed out?”
“You beat me up too, you know.”
“Are those two things the same?”
“Are you jealous right now? Ow—!!”
Sonia jabbed me in the side and lifted her chin haughtily.
“Let’s go. The professor will be waiting.”
After riding the designated shuttle for about an hour, we arrived at the location written in the letter.
Ding-dong.
I pressed the doorbell and waited a moment. Someone opened the door.
“Thank you for coming all this way.”
A tall, youthful man.
It was indeed the person I had seen during the interview.
I breathed a silent sigh of relief and bowed. The depth of my respect was reflected in the sharp angle of my waist.
“You are Professor Richard Feynman, correct?”
“…Heh heh heh.”
Richard Feynman.
Anyone with even a passing interest in physics has probably heard the name.
After all, Feynman was a genius who lived in the same era as Einstein.
Of course, the man standing before me was not the Richard Feynman I knew. Richard itself is a common name.
What mattered was that this world was the world inside a novel, and the author had modeled many characters after real people.
Professor Feynman was one of them. Though he shared the name, his way of thinking and behavior were strikingly similar to the real Feynman.
Who but someone like Feynman would ignore a perfectly serviceable email and insist on sending a handwritten letter?
In any case, he was clearly an eccentric.
“Please, come in.”
“Excuse me. By the way… you don’t have to speak so formally to me.”
Feynman waved his hand as he ushered me inside.
“It is only proper to be polite at first meetings.”
“This isn’t exactly our first meeting, is it?”
“Is that so? Our second, then?”
“It’s the third.”
Once at the interview, once in the restroom, and now. I had almost counted the profile picture I saw on the College Physics Department homepage as a fourth, but since this man had posted a picture of a cat instead, it became our third meeting.
Feynman seemed to realize this as well; he chuckled and offered me a chair.
“Let’s have something light.”
He brought two glasses of green tea. They must have been in the fridge, because they were pleasantly cold.
Come to think of it, this Feynman liked his tea cold and his ice cream hot. Much like how I preferred my affogato without cream.
“You know why I called you here, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
Normally, interviewers were not supposed to meet privately with students in order to maintain fairness.
But Feynman was not the kind of person who cared about such rules.
If he took an interest in someone, he would meet them even in private.
That was why nothing said in this place would ever leak outside.
Feynman finally got to the point.
“I understand your family is quite prestigious. Compared to that, this house must seem rather shabby, no?”
“Not at all. On the contrary, I prefer a place like this.”
I meant it. It wasn’t that I was frugal. Rather than a needlessly spacious warship, I felt more at ease in a modestly comfortable home like this.
“I see.”
Feynman nodded.
“Let me brag for a moment. Since I also make my living with a pen, I earn quite a bit. But I spent all that money buying snacks for the colleagues in my lab.”
“Could I get some later too?”
“Hmm? Hahaha!”
Feynman burst into loud laughter and nodded vigorously.
“Of course. Though one day you might find yourself in the position of having to hand out snacks. In that case, you’ll have no choice but to live in an apartment like this for the rest of your life.”
He spoke playfully, but I understood that every word was a metaphor.
If you want to join our department—physics—you must abandon any desire for money. If you’re obsessed with material success, look for another path. That was what Feynman was saying.
The interview had truly begun the moment I met this man. Or, depending on how you looked at it, from the moment I received that handwritten letter.
If I hadn’t received the letter, endured the difficult journey, and come all the way to this professor’s house?
Feynman would probably have seen me as nothing more than a fairly bright middle-schooler.
Everything up to now had been a preliminary skirmish. We had confirmed each other’s intentions. Since Feynman hated beating around the bush more than necessary, surely…
“Student.”
“Yes.”
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
From here on, he would speak directly.
Of course, I also greatly preferred direct speech.
“A professor.”
So I answered without hesitation.
That was when the atmosphere in the room changed by one hundred and eighty degrees.
I continued.
“I want to become a professor who studies black holes, just like you.”
I want to follow in your footsteps.
“I want to understand what kind of universe we live in. Even though we live in a world where technology has advanced this far, why is it still so difficult to develop a theory that unifies gravity with the other forces? If such a theory is developed, what form would it take? And if it’s impossible, why is it impossible…? I want to understand all of it.”
I want to see the end of this novel.
“Heh heh.”
“For the past three days I was bedridden with a high fever and couldn’t come. That’s why I’ve come to see you now, right after my cold finally broke.”
Even if I fail the Academia track, I will apply to College again.
If I get accepted, please take me on as a lab intern at least.
And if I somehow pass the Graduate track as well, please let me become your graduate student.
I conveyed all those many wishes through this single meeting.
The possibility of failing Academia and being forced to give birth to an Outer Deity’s child?
I didn’t even think about it. At this moment, it wasn’t even worth considering. Screw it—give birth or don’t, I don’t care. Let the Outer Deities say whatever they want.
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“Hmm.”
Professor Feynman closed his eyes for a moment after hearing my answer.
He seemed to be thinking. Or perhaps judging my caliber.
I swallowed hard. In front of a genius, I was nothing but a tiny speck of dust. I knew full well that this conversation would have little effect on my admission to Stellarium. Yet I couldn’t help feeling nervous.
“…It is clear that your intellectual capacity is outstanding.”
Feynman began with those words.
“However, having outstanding capacity does not immediately make someone a good scientist. We have thousands of years of accumulated scientific knowledge from humanity. It is absurd to think you could learn all of that in two years of Academia and three years of College.”
I nodded.
“Therefore, you will certainly need to attend graduate school. And before that, it’s possible your interest may wane and you’ll become discouraged.”
Feynman asked,
“Even so, are you still willing to share snacks with me?”
He grinned.
“By the way, you mustn’t be picky about the type of snack.”
In other words, don’t be picky about research topics.
At the same time, he was telling me to find joy in understanding the world step by step, calmly, even if results don’t come quickly.
With nothing but a simple metaphor, I understood.
This man was a genius.
He was also an excellent educator.
— You want to come to the physics graduate program? You’re still a middle-schooler. Isn’t it too early to decide your career? Why not think about it a little longer?
He gave that kind of warning, yet…
— Still, if you want to come, then come. I’ll support you as much as I can. But promise me one thing.
— Work hard. Be patient. Take it one step at a time.
He really was just like the Feynman I knew.
There was no reason to refuse.
“I’ll eat whatever you give me.”
After all, I was already someone capable of standing as an independent researcher.
No PhD? So what? My research ability remains the same.
Aidel is dead. Lee Jin-soo is alive. That’s all. Therefore, I can move forward as myself.
I don’t know why things turned out this way. I can’t know, and there’s no need to know.
Everyone lives because they were born. I lived because I was born on Earth. It’s the same now. I live because I was possessed.
But as long as I’m living, I will fulfill the duty of the path I walk.
To understand nature.
To me, that is to understand the Outer Deities.
In other words, to smile and strive to understand the incomprehensible.
That is my duty.
— The God of Wisdom and Curiosity wishes to test how long your resolve will last. —
I gazed steadily at Feynman.
Feynman stared back into my eyes for a long time as well.
“…Very well.”
At last, he spoke.
“Let’s meet on campus.”