Chapter 99
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: The Refined Archmage (5)
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At the professor's suggestion to sort things out step by step, Lunaris wrinkled her nose in frustration.
Ah, so frustrating. Can't we just get the gist and play along?
Her scrunched-up face said it all.
Lunaris gave a slight nod toward Professor Maxian.
Go on, then. Speak.
"First... we need a clear definition of the term 'familiar' that you mentioned."
Professor Maxian posed the question with a somewhat tense expression.
He was treading carefully with every word, wary of offending Lunaris.
"From what I can tell, it seems to refer to a rather special kind of familiar, right?"
"It's a bit different from familiars. Those are just artificial lifeforms made from a mage's mana."
Lunaris slowly shook her head.
"The familiars I'm talking about are 'magical beasts that have contracted with a mage.'"
She nodded lazily, adding that in terms of being subjugated to a mage, they could be considered a type of familiar.
"So, what does entering into that contract entail? Just feeding them and taming them?"
When he came to, the lecture hall had taken on a bizarre new look.
Professor Maxian, who had been standing at the podium, was now down below, looking up at Lunaris lounging in the back row of the tiered seats.
Lunaris sprawled haphazardly over her desk, gazing down at the professor.
"The word 'taming' alone doesn't capture the full meaning of a contract. After all, suppressing a beast's instincts is no easy feat."
Before he knew it, the roles of questioner and answerer, teacher and student, had reversed.
"Looks like we'll need to define what a 'contract' really means from here on out."
A spark lit in Lunaris's half-lidded eyes.
"Implanting a hypnotic spell in the brain to establish a lord-vassal bond, while simultaneously forcing the intelligence itself to evolve so it can comprehend and execute a mage's complex commands."
She decided to set this as their initial goal.
Lunaris was ready to create a new spell.
"I-is that even possible? If you mess it up, the beast's brain could fry."
"What's so impossible about it? It's the same principle as knights reinforcing their limbs with mana. And magical beasts are tough, so even a rough approach should be fine, right?"
"Are brains and muscles the same? The brain is an incredibly delicate and sensitive organ. One wrong move, and who knows what problems might..."
"Ah, so frustrating."
Lunaris furrowed her brow at Professor Maxian's worried rebuttal without realizing it.
She had planned to gloss over it verbally, but things weren't progressing.
In the end, with an exceedingly annoyed look, Lunaris gripped Arke.
-Whoosh!
In an instant, the lecture hall's ceiling vanished.
A piercingly blue night sky unfurled above the students' heads.
"Wh-what...?"
"It's night all of a sudden!"
"Is this that famous..."
It was Lunaris's signature spell: spatial manipulation magic.
"Now, pay close attention."
Ignoring the students' murmurs, Lunaris began scrawling formulas across the night sky like a blackboard, using the Milky Way as her ink.
"First, we'll structure the brain enhancement ritual like this."
Starlight trailed long tails behind it.
She drew complex formulas and metaphysical magic circles.
"To avoid burning out the nervous system, we'll need bypass routes. We'll embed the lord-vassal seal here... I was thinking hypnosis at first?"
Two different magic circles intertwined, then burst with a small pop.
"That would cancel out the intelligence enhancement ritual. So instead of hypnosis, we should approach it with something like... affection, or fostering a bond."
"...Affection?"
Professor Maxian stared blankly at the night sky before letting out a hollow laugh.
"Truly... an idea unfit for a mage. Speaking as an ecology professor before anything else, empathy with living creatures can't be forced through magic alone."
The professor wagged his head as he continued.
"That's the realm of the soul—something that can't be defined by formulas or magic circles."
"No. Emotions are just hormones... or rather, combinations of mana wavelengths and biological signals."
Lunaris yawned hugely as she went on.
"Of course, it'd be hard to apply to highly developed brains. Their sense of self is too strong."
"..."
"But for magical beasts with lower intelligence, it might be surprisingly straightforward. We just need a ritual to stimulate their biological responses."
"...!"
Professor Maxian's eyes widened.
A coldly analytical view that interpreted even emotions through a mage's lens.
Frankly, it was a theory he couldn't comprehend at all.
No one had ever tried to analyze emotions as natural phenomena before.
Though Professor Maxian muttered that it was nonsense,
his instincts as both a scholar and a mage screamed otherwise.
This theory Lunaris proposed wasn't utter madness.
It could open a new era for magical ecology—nay, for the entire school of vitalism.
"So, what's the brain structure of magical beasts like? Much different from humans'?"
"Structurally identical. Just smaller cerebrums and disproportionately large brain stems."
From then on, the large lecture hall packed with students became a forum for research debate between Lunaris and Professor Maxian.
"If we reverse the mana array in the hippocampal stimulation ritual, couldn't we erase memories too?"
"Wouldn't that be dangerous? It could cause damage. Better to extend the strokes here and add an inhibition circuit..."
"Extending the strokes isn't ideal. Magic circles get less versatile when they get too complex. If we're considering practicality beyond just research..."
With every exchange, formulas and magic circles blossomed into stars, adorning the night sky with starlight.
The students gazed at the celestial display crafted by the two, shivering in awe and amazement.
Even if they didn't understand, they scribbled furiously in their notes.
They regretted not bringing expandable notepads as they wielded their quills.
The emotion wasn't limited to the students.
Aah...!
The more one knows, the more one sees—or so they say. Professor Maxian was moved to shivers.
How long had it been since he'd immersed himself so purely in academic debate?
Forgetting his professorial dignity, he questioned with shining eyes like a freshman back in his academy days.
Each time, Lunaris answered in her languid voice, despite her obvious annoyance.
Every word pierced through the blocks in Professor Maxian's thinking.
In her voice, he heard echoes of his late mentor.
It felt like a dream.
If only this theory could be completed...!
He could envision the school of vitalism rising to dominance in the Mage Tower.
In the midst of fervently sketching starry formulas,
"Ah."
Lunaris suddenly exclaimed.
"I-is there a problem? An error in the formula...?"
Before he knew it, Professor Maxian's tone toward Lunaris had become exceedingly deferential.
It might look bad for a professor to act this way toward a student, but she was an archmage, after all.
A mage seeking knowledge from an archmage held no shame.
"No, nothing like that."
Lunaris gestured with her chin toward the clock hanging in the night sky like a moon.
"Class time's almost up, isn't it?"
"...Yes?"
Professor Maxian checked the clock.
Indeed, lecture time was nearly over.
Three hours had vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Haha. Time flies, doesn't it? But no matter!"
The professor raised his voice in excitement.
"No one's using this hall after us anyway, so we can keep researching..."
"That'd be a problem."
Lunaris cut him off sharply.
She stretched languidly with a huge yawn.
"It's been a while since I used my brain this much... and talked so much, so I'm all drowsy and tired... perfect for a nice nap..."
"W-wait a moment! We were just getting to the good part! If you're tired, we have special stimulants in our lab..."
"Nah, no overtime for me."
At that instant, the minute hand hit exactly on the hour.
Lunaris, who had been slumped one with her desk, sprang to her feet.
Simultaneously, the night sky filling the lecture hall began to fade away.
The formulas detailing the familiar contract theory, meticulously inscribed in starlight, scattered like morning mist.
"N-no...!"
Professor Maxian screamed, flailing his arms at the empty air.
"D-don't erase it! Stop! If you wipe it all away...!"
"I memorized it all anyway, so no big deal."
Lunaris was already astride Arke.
She looked utterly pathetic, dangling like a wet blanket on a clothesline.
"Thanks for your hard work~"
"S-student! Lunaris stuuudent!!"
Leaving Professor Maxian's wail behind, Lunaris leisurely exited the lecture hall.
"..."
Staring vacantly into the air, Professor Maxian suddenly realized the hall was still full of students.
"...You all."
"...?"
"Did any of you... happen to take notes?"
Mad zeal burned in the professor's eyes.
"Pardon? Oh, uh... it was too fast..."
"I took some down... but not everything..."
"This week's assignment will be to summarize the discussion between Lunaris and me. Due at midnight when today turns to tomorrow."
"What?!"
"Think of it as getting your weekend homework done early."
Protests erupted from all around.
But Professor Maxian saw nothing before his eyes.
"Extra credit for the most thorough notes—put some effort into it, everyone!"