What Are You Doing, Sis? (3)
What Are You Doing, Sis? (3)
My career survey came back crumpled and drenched in sweat.
If she was going to look at it, she might have been a little more careful.
[At least she didn't tear it up.]
I quickly conceded the Hardcover Book's point and let out a small laugh.
Rosemary aside, miniaturizing Flare was the urgent priority at that moment.
The chairman had asked me to prepare the small Flare for an assassination on House Blanton.
Had he asked for it to be made palm-sized?
It was no different from asking someone to build a smartphone with 6G right after they'd just invented a cordless phone. Of course, it wasn't being made for gaming, so I didn't need to worry about GOS performance, right?
...Something like that.
The chairman had covered my tuition and living expenses, so I had to repay him somehow. If I broke the contract on my end, that would be a double standard. I didn't want to become the kind of person who felt ashamed of herself.
But anyway, I had absolutely no idea how to do it...
"Hoo."
Where was I even supposed to start poking at this thing?
Nothing came to mind even as I sat here thinking about it.
I put the survey into my desk drawer and waited, and soon the bell for first period rang.
"Good morning."
Monday's first period was Spirit Magic Theory, lectured by Professor Kai Ruisak.
It wasn't a strictly necessary subject for returning to Earth, but I was studying it diligently, thinking it would be good to know.
It had only been one week since the semester started. Like any university course, this one would probably get difficult from weeks three or four onward. Since it was a subject I'd never seen before, I had to read the text carefully and preview and review the material.
"Starting this session, we'll discuss in earnest what the Four Great Spirits are and what abilities they possess by element. This part overlaps with common knowledge, so listen carefully. That way, when you go somewhere else, you can claim you actually studied spirit magic, right?"
What followed for a while was a predictable lecture.
"...And so, it can be said that the eye color of an elemental spirit matches the color of our own irises exactly."
The formal name for spirits was the 'Four Great Spirits.' This was because there were broadly four types.
Fire, water, earth, air.
The classic four-element setup you see everywhere in fantasy.
I had just learned that spirits, like magic beasts, had humanoid and non-humanoid forms, but humanoid spirits possessed eye colors matching the element they governed. It wasn't a story worth taking notes on.
"Currently, this theory is used to explain why the Gold-Eye Tribe cannot use magic on their own."
Professor Kai Ruisak shifted his gaze toward me. There was no malice in it, but it wasn't a welcome look either.
"Is the Gold-Eye Tribe unable to use magic because there is no corresponding spirit?"
"That's correct. To be precise... we are only presuming that is the case."
If so, didn't that mean the Goddess didn't particularly favor the Gold-Eye Tribe? She'd made it so every other race could use magic, yet we alone were in this miserable state. It was maddeningly unfair.
"Professor."
It seemed Rosemary had been thinking the same thing, as she raised her hand and asked.
"Does that mean the Goddess didn't grant abilities equally when She first created the races?"
I'd wondered what this was about, but it looked like she still held a grudge from her earlier argument with Frey. She was a girl who really knew how to hold a grudge.
"Well. The abilities themselves are not identical, but that is far removed from equality."
"What do you mean by that...?"
"We were all born under different conditions. Differences exist. But not treating those as grounds for discrimination—that can be considered equality."
I glanced back over my shoulder. Rosemary still wore an expression of not understanding.
She was probably running phrases like 'for a human' through her head.
"Did that answer your question?"
"...Yes."
"Then let us continue. As we mentioned in the first session, possessing even one of these Four Great Spirits causes the performance of Elemental Magic to rise dramatically. Let's proceed a little more rigorously from here."
Tap, tatak.
Professor Kai Ruisak picked up a piece of chalk and wrote something on the board.
"Please look at this formula here."
It was a somewhat complex formula.
I skimmed it over roughly and could see what it meant. It was a relational expression explaining the difference between someone who could use spirit magic and someone who couldn't.
Oh, wait a moment.
"Suppose, for example, you need to control an extremely microscopic object. In such a case, a person without spirit magic would find that no matter how much they hone their power, manipulation on the scale of one part per million would be their limit. This is a fact proven by research. But look at the term on the left here. In the version written presupposing the existence of a spirit, you can handle a Magic Engineering Process even at the nanometer scale."
If I followed that formula, wouldn't it be possible to make scrolls smaller?
"I mentioned it in the first session, but I'm not sure if you remember. I am conducting research into the properties of matter at this nanometer scale."
He slipped in a lab recruitment pitch just like that. The classic pattern of professors thirsting for graduate students. When I was an undergraduate, countless professors had inserted their own research results into lecture slides and persistently appealed to the students...
It looked like I'd have to show some interest in this pitch.
**
A student who had suddenly entered in the second semester.
Lady Rosemary Blanton.
Herlein and several others had long since noticed that she was a magic beast, or a being connected to magic beasts.
It had been Duke Blanton who had thrown the First Prince into prison.
It had also been Duke Blanton who had brainwashed the utterly ordinary Second Prince—whose only flaw was a slight fondness for women—and turned him violent.
It had even been Duke Blanton who had blocked her from leaving to search for Kleis.
Everything connected back to Blanton. Not a single day had passed since summer vacation without her thinking about this.
And last week, the Lady's 'tour' had been the final blow.
When Rosemary had appeared, the student who had been helping her had asked to hide. That friend, who had seemed so calm until then, had even said it with a voice that was trembling.
'Vermel Horde.'
He was an elf. She didn't know how an elf knew the affairs of the empire.
No, she didn't know how a student could see through the wretched state of Imperial Palace politics.
'A curious child.'
It was no exaggeration to say most of Herlein's attention was focused there.
But besides him, there was one more student who had drawn great interest.
"......."
Time passed, and it was afternoon.
Herlein, who had returned to the faculty office after the closing homeroom, placed the career surveys on her desk.
She sat in her chair like a statue and leafed through the surveys one by one.
"Frey, Rote.... They both wrote decent things and handed them in."
Caring about her students' career paths was also part of a teacher's job. Another teacher might have groaned over such student guidelines, but Herlein was different.
About three years ago.
During her service on the northern front, Herlein had lost one eye to an Extinction-class magic beast that resembled an Aerial Ship.
She had felt it keenly ever since. That she couldn't do things alone.
For that reason, even knowing it would strain her relationship with an old friend, she had helped the girl from the Gold-Eye Tribe enroll. In a way, it had been a selfish act, but the girl was that much of a precious talent.
She looked at it. Wasn't the result of that choice right here?
##########
[2. Write concretely what you wish to achieve.]
- Miniaturization of offensive Magic Arts including Flare
- Research into uses for Pitchblende Magic Stones
- Development of a 50Mt+ bomb using Teller-Ulam design principles
→ Destruction of the Iron Magic Tower
→ Destruction of the Iron Fortress of Eight Formations
→ Destruction of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defense Lines
→ Destruction of Island Defense Lines A and B
→ Annihilation of Calamity-class and lower magic beasts on other fronts
- Development of a 150Mt+ bomb using Laser Plasma Theory
→ Destruction of the Demon King Army Absolute Defense Line
→ Destruction of the Demon King Castle
→ Annihilation of Extinction-class magic beasts
→ Elimination of the Demon King should he resurrect
- Establishment of methods for commercialization and miniaturization of the above bomb research
##########
Even without looking at the name, she could guess whose dream this was.
Frey's dream of wanting to create harmony among all races.
Rote's dream of becoming a Combat Mage who would drive out all the magic beasts and build a peaceful continent.
They were all bright and worthy of encouragement, but compared to Aether's, they were infinitely abstract. Abstract enough that a realist would give them a negative answer.
Of course, Herlein didn't dislike children like that. She rather liked their innocence and ambition.
But in contrast, Aether's future plans held 'rigor.'
"What are you reading?"
It was a fellow professor who pulled the sentimental Herlein back out into the outside world.
"Ah, the career surveys from my homeroom students."
"Wow. This student wrote an enormous amount, didn't she?"
"Yes. She's the one who placed first in the class last semester."
"The top student really is different, I see.... Her future aspirations are different from other people's, too."
This professor had always been someone who reacted a lot. She had known this, but she still felt good hearing her student praised.
...No, she hadn't been my student originally.
A bitter taste, like black coffee, lingered on the tip of her tongue. Every time she thought of a certain someone, her heart seemed to tear.
Regrettably, time didn't even afford her the leisure to reflect deeply on things past. In any case, Herlein was a professor with tenure. Work was so busy she was short on sleep.
"Well, I have a meeting this afternoon. I'll be off first."
"Oh dear.... I hope it goes well."
Just before she left the faculty office, Herlein recalled the note she had written on the very front page of the survey.
'Come to the Liberal Arts Building basement after this.'
It was time to go meet the student in question again.