Chapter 28
Translator: True Detective
### Chapter 28: Academy, You Say? (3)
Break time after Princess Yveline's bout of causing a scene.
Rihan went out of the classroom without even looking back.
Blankly watching his receding back, I let out a deep sigh without realizing it.
"......Haaaaah."
"What's wrong, Yuna? Does it hurt somewhere? Or were you overwhelmed by Princess Yveline's momentum earlier?"
Mina in the next seat wrapped her hands around my shoulders with worried eyes.
"That's not it....... Mina, that person named Rihan who just went out. What do you think of him?"
At my question, Mina furrowed her brow and pondered for a moment.
Then soon opened her mouth firmly.
"Not good. Totally not good. Honestly, looking only at his face, he is handsome, you know? But you saw his behavior. I absolutely hate that kind of rude type."
It would look like that in others' eyes.
I understand sufficiently.
But the information my nose detected was completely different.
"Don't tell me Yuna, you...... fell for him?"
"What are you saying! No, absolutely not!"
I waved my hands dismissively and denied it vehemently.
That can't be.
To quickly fall in love after seeing him once.
Such a novel-like thing cannot happen to me.
"Just...... he looked like a good person."
"This girl is really saying something that will cause big trouble? Yuna, listen carefully. Originally, you have to be most careful of men like that! He looks like a gigolo so he'll shake up all the girls' hearts, and he has the physiognomy of someone who will eventually only make you suffer. You can't deceive my eyes."
Mina tightly held my hand and earnestly requested as if she was really worried.
But I know too.
It's words I heard from the Director until my ears bled.
To be careful of handsome men.
But.
*'He smells so good.......'*
A heavy coffee scent melted into the cold dawn air.
The inner self of a person harboring such a scent cannot possibly be bad.......
Should I try talking to him at least once.
I want to smell it from very close.
****
I finished a short Academy tour during the break time.
My impression can be summarized in exactly one sentence.
*'Fuck, this was all historical research?'*
Because in the work, fascinating areas without foundation kept popping out.
I thought the author was just making things up to fill plot holes, you know?
It was just that the Academy was fucking huge.
With this level of scale, it feels like it would easily take a few days just to look around the whole place.
I returned to Class A and asked quietly towards Eleanor in my bosom.
"Senior, are you sure?"
[I am sure. The Spirit Vessel is felt very strongly in the Otherworld sharing coordinates with this place.]
The Otherworld of Class A's coordinates.
I fell into thought for a moment.
This is probably a logic similar to the 'Brane' worldview mentioned in String Theory.
It sounds like a difficult word, but if you listen, it's not.
To put it simply, the universe we live in is a membrane like a huge piece of paper.
We live on the 'front' of that paper, and the Otherworld is the 'back' of that paper.
The front and back share the same location, but can absolutely never see each other.
Because they are completely turning their backs on each other with an infinitesimally small dimensional gap where the thickness of the paper converges to 0.
The problem is the means of transportation.
Even if I know it theoretically.
Applying it in reality is a completely different story.
*'Hmm......'*
Do I have to punch a wormhole like when I first met Eleanor?
*'Senior, shall we try punching it again like we did last time?'*
[It is dangerous. You were just lucky back then, there is no guarantee that it will connect directly to the Otherworld this time too. Not unless it's my main body.]
If she says Eleanor's main body is needed.......
I should consider it impossible for the current me.
If I punch a wormhole and drop into the wrong place, my life ends with that.
I was purely just lucky back then.
There's no way the universe is on my side every time.
In the end, I have to use the original protagonist.
In the original work, Yuna is an existence who saw a ghost and even let it pass on.
She must definitely be feeling the energy of the Otherworld.
If it's Yuna, she might instinctively find the passage to the Otherworld.
*'How do I seduce Yuna.......'*
I'll have to think about it a bit.
***
A short while later.
"Everyone be quiet! The professor will be here soon. Students, take your seats and prepare!"
The teaching assistant raised his voice and moved busily on the podium.
At first I thought school PTSD would come, but surprisingly my mood isn't bad.
No, honestly speaking, I'm a little excited.
Because, isn't it the first time taking a proper magic class?
Until now, everything was forcibly learned by twisting and breaking it down with physics.
I was curious what the standard curriculum would be like.
[Rihan. I have great curiosity about what magic after a thousand years have passed would be like.]
*'I'm looking forward to it too. It will be much more systematic than learning from you, Senior, right?'*
[Did you just criticize my education method as being unsystematic? How insolent.]
Actually, Eleanor is a total zero as an educator.
The reason was simple.
Because her hierarchy is too high.
[Can't you just feel it intuitively? The flow of mana is this clear.]
Whenever I try to learn magic from her, it's always like this.
The layer of logical explanation is too thin.
A speech method unique to a genius, saying you just have to do it.
Of course, it's not that her position is incomprehensible.
I also understood after directly breaking through the boundary of moving from 0th Hierarchy to 1st Hierarchy.
Just how huge a wall that hair's breadth difference is.
How much more would it be for the 10th Hierarchy.
It means magic that requires complex calculations for us is just as natural as breathing for her.
Who would logically explain how to breathe one by one.
You just breathe because it breathes.
In the end, defining the magic of this world physically is entirely my share.
*'I'll give it a try. Well.'*
Spinning my pen, I looked towards the teacher's desk.
****
A classroom where a Lightning Magic class is in full swing.
On the podium, Professor **Claire** was forging a bluish current at the tip of her staff.
A small thunderbolt cuts through the air with a sizzling noise.
*'Hmm...... Not that great.'*
My expectation was miserably smashed.
I don't know if it's because of my major but.
It doesn't particularly look like a lecture with anything to learn.
To the extent I think the electromagnetism class I took while dozing off as an undergrad in my past life would be a hundred times more beneficial.
And Professor Claire on that podium.
A face I know.
Appeared in the original novel.
A so-called genius mage selected for the Academy faculty in her mid-20s.
But she had a setting where her character was as flawed as her genius.
Because she was a typical villainess professor who was jealous of talented students.
Especially tormenting Yuna at every turn until she got kicked out.
[Rihan. Why is the level of the faculty at this place called the Academy so dismal. It's to the point where my eyes ache.]
Eleanor grumbled from inside my shirt.
*'That person, she might not look it but she's 4th Hierarchy? She's quite an elite.'*
[For a guy called an elite, the teaching method is incredibly inefficient. Wasting mana like that, it feels like my eyes are rotting entirely.]
She's definitely not wrong.
There is no fundamental understanding of potential difference at all.
The loss rate occurring in the process of converting mana into electricity is almost half.
Looking to the side, Yveline is listening to that crude lecture so seriously.
No, it'll be harder to correct later.
It's no good to learn things like this.
"Yveline. Let it go in one ear and out the other. Using magic like that is just a waste of mana."
I put my lips close to her ear and whispered lowly.
At my sudden approach, Yveline's shoulders flinched.
Soon she narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly towards me.
"......Then what should I do?"
Yveline's pupils looking at me sparkle strangely.
She seems quite excited about this situation of exchanging whispers itself.
"I'll tell you separately later. There is a clear standard for current to flow. If you know that, you can use it much more comfortably without exerting yourself like that."
While we were whispering for a long time like that.
A sharp voice was heard from beyond the teacher's desk.
"There. What are you doing muddying the atmosphere from the first day of transfer?"
"......."
Who?
Don't tell me, is she talking to me?
I made eye contact with Professor Claire.
"Yes, you sitting there. Black hair."
She pinpoints me exactly.
The inside of the lecture hall began to buzz in an instant.
No, fuck.
There are plenty of kids whispering besides me?
Why me of all people.
"......."
It seems she intends to set the discipline by making an example since it's the first day.
Because the Duke family is too scary to touch Yveline.
She must have targeted me, an easy mark.
"I was chatting too. Shall I say a word?"
As Yveline was about to open her mouth as if displeased.
I lightly patted the back of her hand to restrain her.
If I have to draw aggro anyway.
It's better to deal a proper blow here.
Aren't you destined to get robbed by Yuna and kicked out in the original work anyway?
"Try answering the question. Is my lecture funny?"
I tilted my head crookedly and met Professor Claire's eyes.
"Rather than funny......."
Pushing the chair back, I slowly stood up from my seat.
"It's because the level is too low. Professor's magic."
"......What?"
Professor Claire's eyebrows twitched.
But soon, as if she found it amusing.
She strangely raised the corners of her mouth and looked at me.
"Are you insulting me, a 4th Hierarchy, right now? A student on his first day of transfer?"
If she's 4th Hierarchy, it means she's at a level to be buddies with Delmar.
But I'm 7th Hierarchy, of which there are only two in the Empire.
I even high-fived Duke Cassian.
It means a 4th Hierarchy is not someone to be intimidated by, even if not a piece of cake.
Of course, it was Eleanor borrowing my body though.
Anyway, since it was my body, it's the same thing.
Since I'm already marked, I should deal a proper blow here.
I shouldn't just run my mouth without skill.
Because then I'd just be a third-rate extra who gets beaten up passing by, not a main villain.
"You said your name is Rihan? Good. If you're so great, come out yourself."
Claire pointed to the blackboard with her chin.
I slowly walked forward.
Bring it on.
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