Chapter 3
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 3: Yveline von Estal Wants to Learn Physics
"Mmm, as expected, pork cutlet is delicious for Tuesday lunch."
Life as a Chief Researcher at the Imperial Strategic Magic Headquarters settled down faster than I thought.
After the railgun self-destruction fainting incident last time.
Director Barman had certified me as a terrible genius who even risks his life for research.
Thanks to that, no one dares to knock on my lab door carelessly.
It's absurd, but since good things are good.
I decided not to pay much attention to it.
I picked just one out of the 10 difficult problems of the Empire that the Director brought, modified it moderately, and threw it back.
'I can leave the remaining 9 alone for about 6 months with the excuse that data collection takes time.'
The experience of a graduate student in a past life doesn't go anywhere.
The technique of push-and-pull that gives the Director moderate hope and moderate despair at the same time.
Thanks to that, my work-life balance was perfect.
I leisurely read magic books in the morning, explore the cafeteria menu in the afternoon, and leave work early in the evening to drink cold beer.
Sleeping soundly on a soft bed face down is the finish.
It's good?
Where else would there be a better workplace than this.
But did they say life is full of ups and downs?
When happiness hits its peak, unhappiness knocks on the door without notice.
"Sir Rihan! You are truly amazing!"
Bang!
Director Barman's face, having opened the door noisily and entered, was flushed twice as much as usual.
In his hand was a document stamped with a flashy crest.
"What is it? I am in the middle of an important numerical analysis right now......."
"There is someone who wants to see you. No, someone who wants to learn under you entirely!"
In an instant, the teacup I was holding in my hand trembled.
Wants to learn?
Under me as a junior... No, does that mean a graduate student is coming in?
"What kind of nonsense is this while I was sleeping......."
I looked at the Director with a face as dumbfounded as possible.
"Excuse me, Director. I have no talent for teaching anyone. My research technique is so... well, it involves communicating with the mood of mana, so transmission is impossible."
"Don't be like this and listen! It's the young lady of the Duke Estal family, Lady Yveline."
"............"
'Estal?'
In an instant, a strange déjà vu brushes through my brain fluid.
Yveline von Estal.
The name lingering in my mouth is all too familiar.
Wait a minute.
I feel like I remember.
......Don't tell me, really?
'Wait, isn't this a character from the romance fantasy novel <The Magic Flower Language of the Academy> that I stopped reading in my past life?'
A cool sensation swept down my spine.
In the novel, Yveline had overwhelming talent.
But I think she was a genius villainess who had such a terrible personality that she tormented the protagonist (female lead) and met her ruin.
'It's a coincidence, right? It's just the same name, right?'
It has to be.
No, a more fundamental question floods in.
Why is the precious daughter of that great and wealthy Duke family trying to crawl into this dull laboratory?
Aren't you guys filthy rich?
What are you going to do by becoming a clumsy civil servant!
Is this what they call the amusement of the upper class in romance fantasies?
Getting involved with big shots is absolutely hateful.
Especially if it's a character who will go near the guillotine later, even more so!
"Doesn't a Duke's daughter usually go to the Imperial Academy? There are many competent faculty members and the facilities are good there, so why bother coming to this dull laboratory......."
"Lady Yveline is called the greatest genius of the Empire when it comes to magic. She has already transcended the level of the Academy. Such a lady lost her mind after seeing the Fire Storm magic circle you modified! Saying, 'To think the flow of mana forms such a perfect flow!'"
Ah, I'm screwed.
You said confidentiality would be maintained. You bastard.
"How did the Lady see my magic circle?"
"The Duke family provides 30% of the Magic Headquarters' budget....... Anyway, the pressure from above is no joke. Please accept the Lady as your dedicated probationary researcher."
This old snake-like bastard.
You finally caused trouble.
But.
'I can't give up my happy life that simply.'
They said even a worm squirms when stepped on.
I got up from the sofa and waved my hands violently.
"I refuse! I absolutely won't do it! My laboratory is a sacred private space. Working with someone is not in my nature!"
Then Director Barman quietly approached and put his hand on my shoulder.
His eyes sank coolly in an instant.
"Sir Rihan. This is not a request but a recommendation from the Imperial Palace and the Duke family. If the Lady goes back disappointed...... not only will your head fly, but my head will also go sightseeing to the guillotine together. You said the sofa in the Chief Researcher's office is very soft, right? Do you want to change that sofa to a prison straw pile?"
'......No, this is a threat.'
It is no different from very, very low-quality political blackmail.
I recalled my supervising professor from my past life.
That human also pushed me into a limb like this whenever he brought in a budget.
In conclusion, even a worm knows its life is precious.
"Ha...... I understand. I accept."
I just have to show her what hellish graduate school life is.
Because I'll make her walk out on her own two feet.
One day later.
The lab door opened, and a faint scent of roses seeped inside first.
The first thing that caught my eye was pink hair that was so flashy it hurt my eyes.
A woman dressed in a luxurious mage robe, befitting a Duke's daughter, entered with an elegant gait.
She scanned the laboratory once, then frowned at my notebook thrown in the corner and the leftover snack bags.
And then she stared at me, who had my feet up on the desk, with cold eyes as if looking at a bug.
"......Are you that Rihan?"
The moment she opened her mouth, the memories scattered like fragments in my head assembled into one cover.
"She looks really exactly the fucking same."
Pink hair and cool blue eyes.
That lofty attitude of treating the opponent like dust under her feet.
There is no mistake.
She was that villainess destined for ruin, with 0% error from the description in the novel.
She looked me up and down from head to toe.
Perhaps sensing my meager mana value, the corners of her lips twisted in ridicule.
"I had some expectations, but seeing you in person is disappointing. To think the mana reaction is at a level only slightly better than a normal person."
She turned her head and muttered to herself in a very small voice.
"It seems Father was deceived by a swindler. There's no way such an incompetent-looking person made such a magic circle."
"............"
Swindler?
Incompetent?
I stared intently at Yveline.
'Wow, she's terribly pretty.'
Certainly, befitting a villainess in a romance fantasy, she is terribly pretty.
I can see at a glance how she grew up.
She must have grown up hearing that she is a genius until her ears bled.
She clearly had a pretty appearance, but right now, in my eyes, the face of that unlucky judge who treated my thesis as fiction and rejected it in my past life overlapped with hers.
"Excuse me, Lady Duke."
I raised my body from the chair and twisted the corners of my mouth.
An uninvited guest who came to ruin my work-life balance dares to insult my major knowledge?
A guy who doesn't even know the 'P' of physics?
"Whether it's fraud or not, I will judge after seeing you write your thesis... no, magic report later. Ah, for your information, killing time with things like chants won't work under me."
I can't get angry at a Duke's daughter.
My eyes narrow.
It seems the time has come to properly show what the otherworld version of graduate student hell is.
Inside the practice laboratory.
"Wow... The magic efficiency is really, really bad. The energy is just leaking out like pouring water into a bottomless jar."
If I can't get angry, I should at least be sarcastic.
At my sarcasm, Yveline's eyebrows trembled.
Perhaps her pride was hurt, she slammed the desk and refuted sharply.
"My Fireball just now had a mana conversion rate of 30%. This is an efficiency that counts among the best in the entire Empire!"
"This counts as the best efficiency in the Empire? Oh my, the Empire must be on the verge of ruin."
"Rihan. Are you insulting the Empire right now? Or are you insulting the Duke Estal family?"
"Oops, what scary words. I don't mean it like that."
What am I supposed to do when the efficiency is really bad.
In my eyes, a 70% loss is no different from a sin.
"Shall I explain physically how that Fireball just now was? You used 10 mana but only managed to extract an output of 3. Where did the remaining 7 go, you ask? It flew far away into the void as disordered heat and noise."
Yveline's eyes turned cold.
She looks ready to burn me to death with magic right now.
"Talk is cheap. Then will you show it yourself? If you can't prove it, I will accuse you of fraud and make sure you can never appear before my eyes again."
A cool warning contained in the words 'never see again'.
But if I get pushed back here, I have to live supporting the Princess for the rest of my life.
"Watch closely. What real efficiency is."
First of all, I need to press down her nose at the first meeting.
There is a need to solidify who is the professor and who is the graduate student.
I pulled up 70% of my mana at once.
It's an amount the size of a rat's tail, but I raised the concentration to the critical point.
In my head, the simulation repeated tens of thousands of times has already ended.
First, compress the air above the palm to the extreme.
At the same time, accelerate the kinetic energy of the molecules to the limit.
And the most important core.
Create a momentary vacuum state around it to Insulate so that energy does not leak out.
Whooosh—!
The flame that started at my fingertips is not a normal red color.
The flame condenses while rotating at ultra-high speed, and soon becomes a Plasma form emitting a blue light dazzling enough to hurt the eyes.
The characteristic sharp crackling sound generated as the air ionizes filled the laboratory.
Overwhelming high temperature.
The heat that seemed to burn even the surrounding oxygen brushes Yveline's cheek.
But that blue sphere is controlled very precisely, staying at one point without wasting a single grain of energy.
A few seconds later, when mana ran out, the blue flame disappeared like a mirage.
"Phew....... You have to do at least this much to call it magic."
I feel like I'm going to collapse because I consumed more mana than expected.
I panted and looked at Yveline.
"........."
Yveline is frozen as if she lost her words.
Her pupils tremble violently as if an earthquake occurred.
As expected, the nickname of genius is not a lie; she seems to have perfectly grasped the marvel of the phenomenon I just committed.
"Just now... what is that? There was no chant, and the deployment speed of the magic circle makes no sense. Above all... the temperature of that blue light, how did you condense mana to one point like that? The heat didn't spread outward. Theoretically impossible......."
Her arrogant voice is nowhere to be found.
Yveline looked alternately at my palm and my face with an expression of disbelief, then asked with an expression as if she had seen the end of the world.
"You... what on earth is your identity? How did you do it?"
"Trying to get it for free? I can't just tell you."
Saying that, I shouted with joy inside.
'Okay, I think I succeeded for now?'
I thought my enjoyable graduate school... no, laboratory life would become a little more comfortable with this.
But looking at Yveline's eyes, they somehow resemble the eyes of fellow researchers who tormented me all night in my past life.
Hmm. I think I'm fucked.