41. Wow, So You Know Magical Biology. How. Ve.ry. In.ter.est.ing.
41. Wow, So You Know Magical Biology. How. Ve.ry. In.ter.est.ing.
Emy said not to worry, explaining that elves treated injuries caused by demons even better than the Church did.
"Ugh..!"
As a hand touched her leg, Emy's body flinched, as if she still felt pain.
When the bandages were unwrapped, the gaping hole in Emy's leg was revealed.
The wound that had been pierced through was covered with a sticky substance, and around it, densely packed letters squirming like worms covered the skin with spell formulas.
The professor explained that the covering was her own special method for regenerating the punctured wound, and the spell formulas around it were unique elven sorcery designed to extract demonic energy from the injury.
Perhaps because the treatment was so effective, the cells that had blackened from demonic energy had already returned to their original state.
Contrary to my worries, Nico Praha's skill was excellent.
Professor Praha scrutinized the wound area carefully, poked the surrounding area a few times with her fingers to check the reaction, then asked.
"Did you feel any kind of pain from the wound, like a stabbing sensation?"
"It happened during the night."
"...Then that's proof it's healing well. You'll be discharged within a week."
I was surprised that her recovery was remarkably fast.
With an injury that severe, normally you'd have to lie in bed for at least a month, but they said she'd be discharged next week, not even a full week later...
And it wasn't just an injury inflicted by any demon, it was an injury from a Great Demon.
Nico said it as if it were nothing, but the skill involved was incredible.
That made me a little curious.
Looking at the structure, it seemed like the spell formula inscribed on the leg was used to remove the invading demonic energy and promote recovery, after which the wound was sealed with that substance—but the substance looked different from any commonly used medicine.
"What is this stuff that's been applied?"
"It's a mixture made using orc bone marrow. Orcs have better regenerative abilities than humans, so I removed all the unnecessary parts and extracted only the elements that enhance regeneration."
At Nico's casually spoken words, the hospital room froze over.
"Orc bone marrow?"
"Are you by any chance referring to the orc, the green, pig-headed demi-human monster?"
"Well, what other orc is there? That orc."
Emy looked down at the mixture covering her leg with a shocked expression.
The substance, which still looked soft and squishy, remained firmly adhered to Emy's leg like a rock.
"Oh no... my leg... it's green now..."
"D-don't worry! Even if it's a dark green...! It won't make much difference! As long as you can walk without any aftereffects, that's all that matters!"
A flustered Liber was trying to console her with pure nonsense.
Seeing him flustered, it didn't seem like he even knew what he was saying.
But it wasn't entirely wrong, either.
What did it matter if the skin color changed a little? For an injury affected by that much demonic energy, all that mattered was being able to move without aftereffects.
I can treat ordinary wounds, but dealing with demonic energy damage is difficult.
"I used desert brown orc, not the green forest orc, so there won't be any difference in skin color."
"She said it's brown..."
"...That was a joke. That's just a catalyst to boost your natural healing power. There's almost no risk of pigment mixing in."
Calling that a joke, she had a terrible sense of humor.
As expected, long-lived elves have very different sensibilities from humans.
But she looked familiar somehow.
Orc bone marrow... I felt like I'd heard of it somewhere before, and something seemed to be surfacing in my memory.
Orc... bone marrow... Academy...
'The Growth Potion!'
The thesis that had been the direct trigger for my enrollment in the Academy came to mind.
Was this elf professor the one who wrote that thesis?
I had assumed that anyone researching growth promotion would be someone whose growth was stunted, like me, but she was just an exhausted-looking elf.
First, I'd ask.
"Professor, by any chance, didn't you write a thesis about a method for promoting growth using orc bone marrow?"
"I did write it, yes... how do you know about that?"
I'd wondered if it might be her, and it really was.
I'd thought I'd have to look into it someday, and here she was, quite close by.
Nico Praha was the professor receiving research funding from Titan to study the Growth Potion.
"Professor, I have a pressing matter to discuss. Could you spare me some time?"
———————————————-
Thinking with my head, not my heart, the right move was to cut off support for her research.
Her research required an enormous amount of money.
No matter how much the household was shaken by the head's sudden death, the Titan family's fortunes wouldn't decline that much, but reducing such a huge sum would have helped quell the chaos more.
She needed a vast quantity of 'samples,' and the contract terms stated the research funds were not only for research but also included other, miscellaneous items.
I didn't know what this 'miscellaneous' money was being spent on.
The amount wasn't huge, so I'd dismissed it as labor costs, but it was still a very concerning area.
I still hadn't given up on growing.
Considering the family... stopping the funding was the right move... but the thought that her research could lead to a true Growth Potion made me wonder if it might be worth trusting after all.
Professor Praha's private lab, which I followed her into, couldn't be described as anything other than an eyesore, even by the most generous assessment.
Samples of various monsters and herbs were piled up everywhere... some were neatly kept in cases, while others were stored in their original, intact forms.
There were books scattered everywhere, too, and most of them were borrowed from the library.
A quick look revealed some books with due dates nearly ten years overdue.
As expected, elves even have a different concept of time from humans.
She's a crazy library villain.
Her mindset was probably that the time she'd spend trekking back and forth to the library to renew them was better spent on research.
All to create the Growth Potion I would consume as soon as possible.
Thinking about it that way, I could forgive everything.
'Still, if she ever asks to borrow anything, I absolutely must never lend it.'
However, if she ever asked to borrow something, I had no intention of ever lending it.
"Professor, the reason I'm here is..."
"Shh.."
I was about to speak, to check on the progress of the research, but suddenly Professor Praha placed a finger on my lips.
From her appearance alone, you'd expect a deeply musky body odor, but perhaps because of elven racial traits, her body carried a refreshing, grassy scent.
Why would she block my mouth like that?
"Yes... you don't need to say another word. I know everything."
Her tone had changed a bit.
In the hospital room, she had seemed exceedingly tired and blunt, but now she looked somewhat pleased.
Maybe I should say exhilarated.
Her expression had changed along with her tone.
Beyond the thick glasses, her eyes were smiling softly.
Wearing an intensely sticky smile, she opened her mouth.
"You... have become interested in Magizoology, haven't you?"
The sheer absurdity of the remark felt like being smacked in the head.
So this was what it felt like to be truly dumbfounded.
Nico Praha continued speaking with an attitude full of certainty.
"To have even searched for and found my thesis... If you have that kind of passion, I'm always welcoming.
How far are you aiming? Master's? Doctorate? Don't worry, if I become your advisor... you could be the Empire's greatest Magizoology scholar..!!"
"Absolutely not."
I pushed Professor Praha's arms away from my shoulders.
Damn, what nonsense about a bloody doctorate.
And an elf who had a completely different concept of time from humans as my advisor?
I'd rather leash my own neck and become a slave.
Why don't you ask me to co-sign a loan while you're at it?
"....Fine, who would even want to study such an unpopular field anyway... If your business with a Magizoology professor isn't that, then what is your business?"
As soon as I said I wasn't about to become an undergrad, Professor Praha's tension dropped sharply.
She returned to the look I had seen in the hospital room.
"Wait, hold on, your name is Atlas... Atlas... right, I watched your duel before, didn't I? If this is about that, I refuse. Do you know how much trouble that caused me?"
"It caused you trouble?"
"Yes. Buckingham kept whining on and on about how the duel should be invalidated."
I had thought the duel was concluded with the newspaper club being smashed, but Professor Buckingham, whose class had half its students carted off to the hospital, apparently went on to do every conceivable thing afterward.
He had every reason to hold a grudge against me.
Though it isn't my fault that the kids who acted like they deserved a beating got carried off.
"You should be grateful to me. The only reason that man's annoyances got him banned from entry was because of me. If it were a 'human' professor, they wouldn't have been able to stand it, and that duel really would have been invalidated."
"I didn't know about that.. thank you for helping."
"It wasn't necessarily to help... it's just... that's how it is..."
Noticing she seemed slightly excited and was bragging, I thanked her, and she suddenly deflated again.
Was she embarrassed to receive praise?
"Professor, you look busy, so I'll get straight to the point."
I took out from inside my shirt the ring I never went without and showed it to Professor Praha.
On the blunt-looking ring, crafted by polishing a whole rough gemstone, was engraved the crest symbolizing the Blade Mountains, the Empire's largest mountain range.
"What ring is this...?"
When I suddenly thrust the ring at her, Professor Praha was flustered.
She had probably never seen a man showing her a ring before, though she might have seen men giving rings to others.
Just how long had she been holed up in her lab for that to happen?
Normally in this world, one would see far more men showing off rings.
In the Empire, a ring was the accessory most commonly used to engrave the crest of one's family.
This ring was the one I received the year I turned ten... that is, the ring of the 'Titan' family.
I could see Praha's pupils subtly wavering as she peered intently at the crest engraved on the ring.
Her eyes were fixed on the ring's crest.
"Does it look familiar?"
"Uh....."
There was no way she wouldn't recognize the Titan crest.
Every letter she had ever received from Titan would have had a wax seal stamped with this crest.
"Sponsor...?"
In a trembling voice, Professor Praha gauged my reaction.
"Yes. So, shall we take a look at your research progress?"