High-Class Slave of the Academy
High-Class Slave of the Academy
I was attending graduate school for the second time.
My day began with cleaning the academy grounds. This was because not a single fallen leaf could be allowed to litter the path my beautiful professor took to and from work.
Due to the downpour last night, the corridor was in an abysmal state. Nature's precious gifts were strewn all over the ground. The leaves, having built a solid bond with the earth using water as an adhesive, had no intention of entering the trash bin.
As I struggled to sweep the ground with my slender arms, a surge of unjustifiable resentment made me toss the broom aside.
"I can't do this, really."
Even real graduate students, who jokingly called themselves slaves, didn't clean their own schools, right? Normally, you'd outsource that to a cleaning company.
Ah, I was a slave and a graduate student. The dissonance arose because I kept trying to measure things by my original world's standards.
Gurgle.
I was hungry. I hadn't eaten anything since waking up today and had only cleaned. With a little exaggeration, I felt like I was starving to death.
This wouldn't do. If I didn't rest for even a moment, my body couldn't hold out.
After wiping the moisture from the bench with a linen cloth, I planted my rear on it. I heard the sound of my spinal joints crunching out of alignment.
Maybe it was because of the rain, but even that sound felt musty. It was like a sensation of dampness seeping into my bones.
"How much did you even do to be resting already?"
Ah, there were times like that. That moment when you were studying in your room as a kid, thinking, 'Should I rest for a bit?' and the very instant you picked up your smartphone—that was precisely when your mom opened the door and walked in. Regrettably, it seemed I'd been caught in that exact timing.
Getting up the moment I sat down only accumulated more fatigue. But if I didn't stand up right that instant, I felt like a fireball would come flying at me.
I hurriedly stood and assumed a posture of attention. A woman approached me as I did so.
She frowned and looked around.
Beneath her gathered brows were a pair of red eyes reminiscent of an albino.
People with that eye color usually had fiery tempers. Was it because they were blessed by a fire spirit?
"Your cleaning is still terrible. You'd think after three years you'd have picked up a few tricks."
First, I bowed my head deeply.
"I'm sorry."
"If you know, then try harder."
This was the best method against Professor Kleis Haspelt. It was obvious what would happen if I showed even a hint of defiance toward the heir of the Haspelt ducal house, which had led the empire since its inception.
Watching the professor's expression, I picked up the broom lying at my feet. The damned northwesterly wind had, in the meantime, shaken more leaves from the branches again. Thanks to that, the hallway I'd painstakingly swept was a mess once more. In the midst of it, one leaf settled right on the crown of my head.
"The outside corridor is a mess. This will obstruct the movement of the enrolled students."
"......"
"What are you doing? Not sweeping up the rest."
Oh, you son of a bitch!
If I had my way, I wanted to uproot every tree in the academy. But if I did that, my own neck would get uprooted too, right? Especially since some were donated by nobles or the imperial family.
"Haa."
"Haa?"
"The weather is really nice."
Clutching my hungry stomach, I performed a tap dance in the 200-meter straight corridor connecting the research building and the faculty building.
Far away, Professor Haspelt was sitting on the bench I'd cleaned, watching my foolish antics. Seeing her with her legs crossed made me feel like my cerebral arteries were knotting up as well.
Still, now that I'd swept this much, she'd give me breakfast, right?
"That's enough. Finish up and follow me to the lab."
"Um... What about breakfast?"
"You'll be skipping your meal today. Something urgent came up."
Ah. This is truly insane.
**
[TIP: You cannot return to your original world until you have learned all magic.]
[◆ Progress]
[Fire Magic : 836/1048]
[Water Magic : 234/992]
[Earth Magic : 351/1005]
[Air Magic : 112/824]
[Unclassified : 0/148]
"......"
"Aether."
"Yes, Professor."
"Go get some Magic Paper from the supply room."
I grabbed a few sheets of Magic Paper and a pouch containing Magic Stones from the shelf and exited the supply room. Haspelt sat with the window closed, a pipe clenched in her mouth.
I opened the window and then accepted the stick of Mana Cigarette she offered me.
After doing physical labor from dawn until morning, things got a little easier after that. At least I couldn't take a single step out of here until dinnertime.
From now on, it was time for mental labor. It probably consumed fewer calories than moving my body. Though it was agonizing not being able to put a drop of water in my mouth past noon.
Word came last night that magic beasts had overflowed on the northern front. So, the research we'd been doing was suspended for the time being.
"Which means...?"
"We must devote ourselves to scroll writing for the next week."
Simply put, it meant we had to produce military supplies. Just like the countless university labs in the Allied nations that worked on the divided tasks to build the atomic bomb during WWII.
Professor Haspelt's major was Flame Magic. Specifically, she was an expert at writing flame-type scrolls that stored magic in Magic Paper and, when activated, would beat down the opponent on their own.
"We need to meet the quantity ordered by the Order of Knights. About three hundred should be enough for today."
The problem was that I had to do all the groundwork for writing those scrolls by myself.
Isn't the quantity a bit much?
Thinking like that meant I'd already lost. The truth that you should never expect a normal workload in graduate school was a lesson I had learned back in my original world.
I couldn't shake the feeling that I was accepting it too readily. Was this that gaslighting thing, or whatever it was called?
I settled into one side and put the Mana Cigarette in my mouth. Even before lighting it, a sharp, pungent smell stabbed my olfactory cells.
I placed the Magic Paper in the center of the workbench and set the Magic Stone beside it. Lastly, I took a thick hardcover book from the hip bag I always carried.
<Study on the Correlation between Magic and Physics>
- Subtitle: A Guide to Magic for Physicists Traveling in a Fantasy World (Beginner)
"......"
Thinking about it, it was because of this bastard. It was practically because of this one book that I was suffering like this now.
It was a memory now fading in color. In that memory, I had been reading a paper.
It was a paper I'd been reluctant to read because its title was so strange and its length was absurd. But because I'd received money from the author, I had no choice but to peer review it... and I tore that paper to absolute shreds. After reading only a few pages.
That was only natural. From the very first paragraph, it was spouting utter nonsense about magic this and explaining the supernatural with science that. It only looked like a paper in format; it took me less than thirty minutes to reject that scribble, which was no different from a fantasy novel.
But perhaps the corresponding author thought I was just trying to score a quick review fee, because they sent a girl to lodge a complaint with me.
A girl with distinctive eyes, as if molten gold had been poured into them. The only other feature was that she was wearing a thick robe. No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't attire suitable for walking around modern society.
- Who are you?
- You.
- Excuse me?
- It's you. You'll know when you receive this.
That girl handed me a hardcover book. I didn't want to take it, but my body moved on its own, and I ended up accepting it. And when I came to my senses, the story was that I had fallen into this world as that girl.
Now that I thought about it, the probability and verisimilitude were completely wrecked.
Anyway, the monstrosity that I had trashed as being worse than pseudoscience in that other world could be used proudly as a paper containing truth in this one. I had to acknowledge its usefulness, at least.
"Finish the Light Arrows first. We have to ship those out first."
"Yep."
Flip.
[Mid-Grade Flame Magic - Light Arrow]
[Fire Magic that shoots an arrow made of light. Penetration power is excellent, but range is short.]
[▶ Scientific knowledge required to write this magic into a scroll]
[■ Required]
[First Law of Thermodynamics (Condition Met)]
[Second Law of Thermodynamics (Condition Met)]
[Maxwell's electromagnetic equations (Condition Met)]
[□ Optional]
[Liénard-Wiechert potential (Condition Met)] -- Required when writing an increased range circuit
[Basic cyclotron theory (Condition Met)] -- Required when increasing rotational output
[Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization condition (Condition Met)] -- Required when increasing penetration power
"Hmm."
Below that, there was a rough method and diagram for writing the scroll listed. Perhaps because I'd spent three years under Professor Haspelt, it was at a level I could eyeball and assemble.
Scroll writing was similar to handling electrical circuits. You laid the necessary Magic Stones and wires on the Magic Paper, which looked a bit like a breadboard, then placed various Magic-Circuit Components on top, and it was done. The type of magic manifested simply changed depending on how the circuit was configured.
"I was asked to maximize the penetration power. You can do that, right?"
"No problem."
Although Light Arrow was a flame-attribute Magic Art, the basic subject it dealt with was light.
I just had to make the mana particles traveling along the beam penetrate and tunnel through the enemy's outer layer. With practiced hand movements, I completed over twenty pieces in an instant.
"Ssseup."
A puff of the Mana Cigarette after finishing one set. I forcibly circulated mana through my body, then poured a little into the scroll to check if the closed circuit was completed properly.
It was what you'd call a defective product check. Good. No issues.
"Ah."
The Magic Stones I'd brought were all used up. This had been the last one.
"Professor, I've used up all the Magic Stones."
"Go outside and procure some."
"How much should I buy?"
"Why would you waste money buying low-class Magic Stones? Just go pick some up from the mountain behind."
So, in other words, she was telling a frail girl who had skipped both breakfast and lunch to go beat down magic beasts and then gather materials from them?
"If you dawdle, you might end up skipping dinner too."
"I'll be back."
"Be back by 5 PM."
Bang!
Fine. If she says jump, I jump. I didn't want to be resold at a slave market because I couldn't do the work.
Still, wasn't I lucky Haspelt was a woman? Just think what would've happened if some pervert steeped in lust had won the auction. Compared to that, this was an easy deal. Right?
Okay?
"What's with you? Your face looks like you're chewing shit."
"......?"
When I went down to the research building, a woman in a wide-brimmed hat was looking at me and grinning.
Judging by the robe draped over her, she wasn't a student. Like Haspelt, she was a faculty member here.
I immediately recognized who this was.
"Professor Herlein."
"Long time no see, Aether."
Meriga Herlein. Along with Professor Haspelt, she was a professor who rivaled her in beauty at Tillet Academy.
She approached me, waving her hand.
Perhaps befitting an earth mage, a characteristic feature was that she always had a golem nearly twice her size accompanying her.
"Did you come to see Professor Haspelt?"
"No, she's so obsessed with research she's no fun to look at. I came to see you today."
I tilted my head.
"Me? Why?"
Professor Herlein had shown interest in me for a while. But she'd only ever let it show occasionally. She'd never once appeared out of the blue in front of the Fire Magic Research Lab to wait for me.
"Isn't it hard working under Kleis?"
"It's fine."
"Don't be like that. Be honest."
"......"
"You know I was a commoner before I graduated from here, right? Even after becoming a noble, a person's essence doesn't change easily. It's annoying to stand on ceremony with people like you, too. So, hm? Think of me as an easygoing older sister and feel free to unburden what's in your heart."
"It's really fine."
People, you see, had to be very careful above all else to guard their mouths.
Professor Herlein, you mustn't judge me just at face value. Although my body is like this, the person inside is about the same age as you.
"Really? If you're doing fine, then it can't be helped. If you had said you really couldn't endure it, I might have helped you formally enroll in the academy."
What?
What did she just say?