Major Selection (4)
Sion. That guy with the friendly smile and narrowed eyes was actually the heir to a hidden information guild, concealing his power. According to the original novel, he should have entered the Knight Faculty on a secret guild mission to monitor the crown prince's movements.
So why the hell is he here?
Ignoring my bewilderment, Sion sauntered over with his usual brazen grin.
"Nice to meet you, buddy. I'm Sion. I got curious about that 'thing' you showed off at the Grand Tournament Grounds, so I figured I'd check out the Engineering Faculty... and bingo, it was you."
Sion's cheeky greeting must have been the spark. Pistia, the Engineering Faculty department head and its only professor, jolted upright in shock.
"Wh-what?! Th-this is the guy who... took down Kyle young master at the Grand Tournament Grounds? With that rumored device that doesn't even use a handful of mana?!"
Her head-down, shy demeanor vanished in an instant. She sprang up like a coil spring, shoving her face right into mine, and unleashed a machine-gun barrage of questions.
"Can I take a look at the structure? What's the mechanism? It has to be pressure expansion from chemical combustion focused on the projectile! How'd you solve the sealed chamber issue? What's the gunpowder ratio?!"
No stammering at all. She even gripped my rough hands tightly with both of hers, her previously hollow eyes sparkling as she gazed up at me. This was borderline religious fanaticism.
From the side, Sion smirked knowingly, folding his narrowed eyes.
How do I cool down this overheating zealot? Come to think of it, this gearhead department head was a true mechanical otaku who'd skipped grades and earned her doctorate at twenty. She'd probably spent her life holed up in a lab tinkering with hunks of metal, so her immunity to males had to be hovering near zero.
A mischievous impulse struck me.
"Department Head. Skinship on a first meeting? You're bolder than I thought. You're embarrassing me."
I wiggled my captured hand and shot back with feigned nonchalance.
"...Eh?"
Pistia's brain finally rebooted to reality. She glanced down, realizing her slender little hands were firmly clutching some random male student's. Her pale face flushed crimson all the way to her hairline, like an explosion.
"H-heek!!! S-sor, so-sor... sorryyy!"
She yanked her hands back and stumbled away, then yelped "Ah!" and clapped a hand over her mouth. She'd clearly bitten her tongue hard. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"...Th-that is... um... b-but the thing is so... ugh..."
Pistia shrank back into her usual asocial mode, shoulders hunched, mumbling incoherently. She looked so pitiful and ridiculous that I nearly burst out laughing but held it in and drove the nail home.
"What was that, Department Head? What about my 'thing'?"
"Y-your 'thing'... is so... beautiful. You can't find something like this anywhere in the Empire—no, anywhere else!"
Pistia's frenzy showed no signs of stopping. She stared laser-focused at my holster, swallowing dryly in rapt ecstasy.
"The form is perfect...! Missing a chance to see this up close would be a lifelong regret... To think something this amazing actually exists—half my life has been a total waste!! Please, please just let me examine it closely!!"
Passing students from other faculties stopped dead, staring at us in horrified confusion at what the hell they were hearing. Seizing the moment, I shot Sion a subtle glance. Quick on the uptake as expected from an info guild guy, he instantly adopted the look of someone pitying the world's saddest friend.
"...Department Head, that was a bit much."
Sion cut in with a solemnly grave tone.
"Y-yes? Cadet Sion, what do you...?"
"Even if our faculty's desperate for freshmen, fawning so openly over a guy you've just met's 'thing'? Saying you've 'wasted half your life'—even as a fellow guy, that's embarrassing to hear."
"E-eek?! N-no! I meant the mechanical device...!"
"Ah, Department Head. 'Device'? Calling my precious tool—practically part of my body—something so casual."
I sighed deeply, feigning despair as I took over.
"Grabbing my hand on sight, raving about my 'thing's' perfect form and beauty... You know this qualifies as clear sexual harassment under academy rules, right? Just because I'm a commoner cadet, you're harassing me outright?"
"...!!"
Pistia's mind ground to a halt. Her face wasn't just red anymore—it looked ready to burst.
That's when Sion landed the finishing blow.
"I'm really disappointed, Department Head. You always seemed so quiet and pure, dedicated only to research. Who knew you had this... secret fixation on freshmen cadets' 'things'."
"N-nooo! I'm not a pervert!!"
Pistia couldn't even scream properly anymore, just flailing her mouth open and shut. Steam practically rose from her head.
"Well, can't be helped. Buddy, wanna just report her and switch faculties? At least they won't have professors sexually harassing cadets there."
Sion draped an arm around my shoulder, pretending to turn away. I upped the ante, pointing glumly at my holster.
"Yeah. My 'thing' being so to your taste? Scary enough I don't wanna stick around Engineering."
"S-so-sorrrryyy! Please don't report meee! I-I don't wanna go to prisonnn!"
Pistia finally slammed her head under the desk, apologizing in a wail. Still tongue-bit, she whimpered, "B-but it really is amazing..." It was kinda cute.
This should have killed her hype enough. I scooped up her crawling self-esteem just right and eased into my real agenda.
"Get up, Department Head. The prank went a bit far. I can keep what just happened off the record from the Holy Bureau or academy admin."
"R-really...?"
Pistia peeked out from under the desk, tear-streaked and snotty—pitiful, but negotiation rule one: strike when they're cornered.
"Don't you want to study my revolver?"
"Of course...!"
I crossed my arms, pretending to mull it over before speaking.
"If you grant a simple request, you can examine my revolver to your heart's content."
I pulled a crumpled sheet from my pocket and slapped it on the dusty desk.
"R-request? This is a dual major application... and a contract?"
Pistia wiped her eyes with her sleeve and peered at the paper. Sion leaned in curiously too.
I locked eyes with Pistia and listed the terms clearly.
"First, give me sole use of your largest, most secure lab in the Engineering Faculty. No other faculty cadets—or especially professors—allowed anywhere near. My absolute private domain."
"Uh... I can do that right now with my authority. We basically just have extra rooms and dust anyway..."
"Good. And..."
I grinned, hitting the crux.
"Handle all my major class attendances as 'perfect scores,' and exempt me from midterms, finals, all regular exams."
"...Whaaat?!"
Pistia's eyes bugged out.
"Th-that's impossible! Even as department head, exempting a cadet from attendance and all exams entirely... requires justification on par with a top national project!"
A solid rebuttal worthy of a genius doctorate. No social skills, but she had the bare minimum professor conscience intact.
But I had the perfect weapon to shatter it.
"No special justification? Then we'll make one."
I drew my revolver from the holster, popping the cylinder with a click. The intricate gears peeked out, and Pistia's shoulders twitched again.
"You and I conduct secret joint research on this thing. You provide the lab and grade free pass; I share basic blueprints for the frame and some first-gen ammo ratios."
"...!!"
"Oh, and if you want, you can disassemble and handle my weapon yourself. As long as my transcript gets those A+ marks."
Disassemble and blueprints. Those words hit her ears, and her last shreds of professorial conscience and academy rule weight evaporated into thin air. Shame, reason—worthless against a gearhead's insatiable curiosity.
"Wh-what's academy rules?! I'm the department head! If I say it's special, it is special!!"
Pistia shrieked, ransacking her desk drawer like a maniac. She yanked out a dusty, hefty department head seal.
"It's decided! You're my top disciple starting today! No, joint researcher! Wait, you be department head! Just let me disassemble it once! I'll stamp! Stamping!!"
Thud-! Thud-! Thud-!!
She hammered the seal onto the papers at near-assault speed, nearly punching holes through them.
"Hahaha! Roasting a professor—you're no ordinary guy. Oh, Department Head, stamp mine too."
Sion doubled over laughing, shoving forward what looked like his major application. Sanity-gone Pistia stamped his blindly too, wham-wham.
Watching the red seal hit Sion's paper, I clicked my tongue softly. The info guild heir meant for Knights was now locked into Engineering.
The original plot's twisted hard.
But no harm done. From a hardcore capitalist view, perfect timing. A genius gearhead department head with weapon dev tech, plus a guild heir gripping distribution nets and intel from back alleys to nobles. Even if he was sticking around to observe me as an intriguing variable, I could just leech his background dry. And for dodging Holy Bureau eyes, no better cover than Sion.
"There! All stamped! Now disassemble! Let me!!"
Pistia gulped, hands outstretched for my holster. But I stepped back casually, holstering it behind me.
"Tch, no rushing. Blueprints and disassembly come after my private lab's spotless and fully set up. Go clean it today."
"Gaaah! You con artist! You said you'd show meee!"
Leaving her wailing, I strolled out of the booth light-footed. My perfect academy double-life plan was now officially greenlit. Skip classes and exams, feast on academy research budget, genius gearhead brains, and info guild intel—a legal golden egg.
Sweet. So sweet.
I smirked inwardly at the papers clutched to my chest.
Until opening day, Pistia scrubbed the lab top to bottom solely for Flint. Every time he dropped by, frowning and deadpanning "Unacceptable. Redo it," she'd tear up and mop again—but for the "revolver," this humiliation was nothing.
Finally, the long-awaited opening day dawned. Pistia glued herself to the Engineering Faculty entrance from early morning, waiting endlessly for Flint.
"He's late..."
Having totally forgotten the contract she'd signed.