O God of Science!
Are you my father-in-law?
The bald, middle-aged man in his fifties dropped to his knees and began bowing repeatedly.
“Ooh, ooh—! Oh God of Science…!”
“No, um— please stand up…!”
“Bestow your knowledge upon this humble servant—”
No matter how many times I tried to lift him, he refused to rise. Staring at that gleaming bald head, I could only sigh. Just how on earth had things come to this?
Until I arrived here, I could never have imagined it would turn out this way.
Before coming here, I had immediately informed Regalia that I’d been invited to Scholar. When she heard the news, she nodded as if she had expected nothing less.
“You’ve entered Scholar? Well done.”
“You already knew?”
“Of course. Why else do you think this one sent you there? It was all for this very reason.”
I had suspected as much, but it turned out the reason Regalia sent me to the ESP Research Institute was precisely because of Scholar. I’d wondered how she even knew about an organization with fewer than ten members, but there was a perfectly good explanation for that too.
“Scholar is a group formed by corporations and governments working as one. Unless one runs a dinosaur corporation that represents the city itself, its very existence would be unknown.”
“…So Scholar is also an organization the boss sponsors?”
“Naturally. Is that so surprising?”
Regalia, who ran a villain organization yet still donated to the Hero Association, naturally contributed to Scholar as well.
After all, casually throwing around a million dollars for dignity maintenance and ten billion dollars for research funds meant she had serious financial resources. No ordinary company or two could provide that kind of money without blinking.
“There is one more reason this one sent you to join Scholar.”
“Not just for the research funds?”
“If it were only about money, I would have had you create items and sell them externally. At any rate—Scholar receives sponsorship from numerous corporations and governments, so its members receive the strictest protection.”
According to Regalia, Scholar’s members were considered guiding lights for humanity’s future and were therefore treated as treasures of mankind that must be protected at all costs.
If I were ever kidnapped, the government would immediately mobilize every available resource to rescue me. Should any corporation try to recruit me, the others and the government would step in to block them.
After hearing all that, I let out an admiring sigh at Scholar’s greatness—only to tilt my head in momentary confusion.
“They’ll stop corporations from trying to recruit me… but I already belong to Evils Enterprise, don’t I?”
“It means that if you already belong to an organization, they will not attempt to poach you from it. Hehe. It also means other corporations will prevent you from slipping out of this one’s grasp.”
Watching Regalia chuckle like that, I could easily tell just how desperately she wanted to keep me in her clutches.
I don’t have any plans to leave anyway, so there’s no need to worry…
Whether it was because she was born with a diamond spoon in her mouth or simply had no idea how other researchers lived, Regalia seemed to think the compensation and treatment she gave me were somehow insufficient.
Reality was the complete opposite, of course.
“You may use the research funds they provide however you wish. I never liked it when the government arbitrarily took the money away, but being on the receiving end now feels rather pleasant.”
“…Is it really money I can spend freely?”
“Scholar exists to sponsor those who will lead humanity’s future. They make it a point not to interfere much with what members do. Such meddling only ruins creativity, or so they claim. Ah—of course, you won’t be able to use those funds while operating as part of our villain organization.”
Regalia had never liked being forced to pay Scholar in the past, so she seemed genuinely delighted that I would now be the one squeezing money out of them.
Indeed, while every other corporation was being squeezed the same way, having her own subordinate be the one doing the squeezing must have felt like a small victory. I nodded in understanding.
“I’ll empty out Scholar’s wallet for you.”
“Good. Empty Scholar’s wallet and conduct whatever research you—”
Regalia suddenly froze mid-sentence. She flinched, looked up, and glared at me.
“…Cancel that.”
“Pardon?”
“The part about using it freely is canceled. When you receive and spend money from Scholar, consult with this one first.”
When I stared at her in confusion, she simply narrowed her eyes as if telling me to recall my past behavior.
I had nothing to say and could only shrug. If I couldn’t use it, then I couldn’t. Too bad…
After somehow reaching an agreement with the boss, I tried to receive the research funding from Scholar, only to be told they would explain the procedure in person and that I should come to their headquarters.
When I asked whether they weren’t simply lending the money without conditions, they countered that no such sweet organization existed. I had no response.
There was also a reason the academy president had flatly refused to provide research funding earlier. The support grant could reach up to ten billion dollars. It wasn’t handed out for just any project; it was only given to research that had a certain degree of persuasive power.
In other words, those sponsoring Scholar weren’t pure guardian angels. After all, no global dinosaur corporation could survive while casually wasting tens of billions on projects without even knowing what they were about.
“Welcome, Dr. Eight.”
“Yes. Nice to meet you.”
The moment I said I would visit Scholar’s headquarters, a driver arrived in front of the company shortly after. Perhaps because it was an ultra-secret whose very existence and location were known to almost no one, even Vira couldn’t accompany me.
I left her behind as she raised the corners of her mouth in disappointment and boarded the vehicle. The windows instantly turned pitch black, completely cutting off the outside world from the inside. It was the same technology I had seen in the ESP Research Institute president’s office.
“Please don’t be too surprised. The exact location is a secret even to the members, so it can’t be helped.”
The driver spoke as he steered the vehicle somewhere. With both the windshield and side windows completely blacked out, I had no idea how he was driving. It was fascinating.
After traveling for quite some time, the vehicle stopped. There was a brief sensation of riding an elevator moving up and down, and then the darkness enveloping the car lifted.
What appeared was a grand hall packed with mechanical devices that reminded me of laboratories back on Earth.
“Dr. Eight. Welcome.”
The moment I stepped out of the vehicle, the academy president approached me with a bright smile. He smoothly took charge of me from the driver and led me inside, immediately beginning to explain the various facilities installed throughout the hall.
“That one is the newly developed—”
“A spatial acceleration device, right? Equipment for controlling spacetime.”
“Oh— As expected of Dr. Eight. Can geniuses recognize it at a glance?”
“No. It’s simply familiar.”
“Familiar…?”
Leaving the puzzled academy president behind, I looked around at the equipment. Just seeing the devices here brought back waves of nostalgia I hadn’t felt in a long time.
The science experiment kits my parents had given me as a child, the lab tools stocked in school laboratories. Though their appearances were different, the equipment serving similar roles filled my head with memories.
“That can’t be… Well, anyway. Let’s head inside. Another member has come today as well.”
“Another member?”
“Yes. Normally, members stay shut up in their own laboratories and rarely emerge… but like Dr. Eight, this person came to receive research support funds. Quite the surprising coincidence.”
The academy president had told me I didn’t have to meet anyone if I didn’t want to, but I wanted to see the faces of the other members. I was curious about the level of the geniuses who were supposedly leading the world.
When I nodded and said I’d meet them, the academy president smiled excitedly and led me somewhere. There stood a bald middle-aged man in his fifties and a beautiful woman wearing a maid outfit.
“—Dr. Kuroi. This is Dr. Eight. He is our Scholar’s eighth member.”
“…Hmph. So now they’re accepting even greenhorns like this?”
“Greenhorn? Please watch your tongue. Dr. Eight has made a truly groundbreaking discovery in ESP research—”
“Enough. Hey, greenhorn. I’m not particularly interested in whatever you’ve created. No matter what you make, a genius like me—”
“—This is an android built using circuits from an Evils Company toy, correct? It’s incredible. Truly something I could never have imagined.”
When I offered the praise, Dr. Kuroi stopped speaking and cleared his throat with a loud cough. It wasn’t easy to respond so sharply to someone complimenting you.
Especially when the praise was completely sincere. I turned my gaze to the beautiful maid standing beside Dr. Kuroi. At first I had thought she was merely a servant, but hearing Dr. Kuroi’s name reminded me.
This is the one made by linking tens of thousands of those circuits…
Just as I had thought when I first saw it, it was truly a breathtaking creation. Connecting tens of thousands of toy circuits to create a strong artificial intelligence?
It was as wondrous as building a CPU from tens of thousands of abacuses, or as stacking red blocks in Ma○craft to create a supercomputer.
It was theoretically possible, yet no one had ever actually done it. That was what made it so astonishing—the sheer insane amount of grinding required.
He really built this…
However, there was one regrettable point. Because it was constructed from circuits with clear limitations, the creation had no room for future development. It could be improved with just the slightest adjustment. Just the tiniest bit…
“…Why are you staring at our Lucia like that, greenhorn?”
“Ah, I’m sorry, Dr. Kuroi.”
Dr. Kuroi began trembling as if anxious. I smiled brightly to show I meant no harm. Even so, he continued to shake with unease.