Passing Like a Dog (1)
Passing Like a Dog (1)
Two days after the entrance exam ended.
As I pondered the underlying theory of 'Flare,' midnight came and went. The thought of having to see Professor Haspelt's face again starting tomorrow made me want to vomit.
I closed the lab door and hastened my steps toward the stable. Outside, a deep darkness had settled, but thanks to the stardust embroidering the ceiling, it didn't feel particularly pitch-black.
Walking while gazing up at the sky sometimes brought back old memories.
Ever since I was little, my older sister would point out every star in the celestial sphere by name, and then she'd pull her routine: 'I'm gonna go to Mars─'. When I asked if her dream was to be an astronaut, she said no, she just wanted to change the world.
I still couldn't understand that weirdo's way of thinking. But one thing was certain: my sister had shown me the path of science. When I lowered my head again, the memories melted away and reality filled the empty space. Before my eyes, my sweet home was waiting for its good-for-nothing owner.
I pulled the stable door handle and went inside.
After tossing my crumpled exam admission ticket from my hip pack onto the paulownia wood desk, I lay down on the straw. In my hand I held a Magic Paper with an unfinished Flare.
[(Incomplete) Top-Grade Fire Magic ─ Flare]
Judging by the fact that even the Hardcover Book I'd been carrying since I fell into this world described it only briefly, it wasn't a completed spell yet. That meant I'd have to conduct my own research from here on out.
"I can't handle this, seriously."
There was a huge wall between copying a scroll that someone else had already made and writing a scroll to contain a new spell.
The former could be done through memorization and technique, but the latter required comprehensive thinking, creativity, and the intuition built up over years of studying other things to even have a chance of success.
No matter how much I'd built up my skills by handling work Spartan-style under Haspelt, this was a problem I could only solve by racking my brain until it burst. And since it wasn't something I already knew like the transistor, it might take even more time.
[The sun, the fourth state, and the fifth path are here.]
This was all the explanation written in the book. I would have to get a hint from this.
The noteworthy words were 'the sun' and 'the fourth state.'
In context, the fourth state seemed to refer to plasma. Given the connection to stars, could Flare have been a magic related to hydrogen fusion?
"No, that might have been going too far...."
Seeing the refrain, there might have been something more after it. I needed to explore possibilities from as many angles as possible.
If Flare were a magic that used nuclear reactions, the otherworldly version of the Eightfold Way that I had studied for the entrance exam might help.
Oh. Then if I delved deeper into the Eightfold Way, wouldn't I be able to research Flare as well?
It was more than worth a try. If I approached it that way, later when Haspelt asked how far I'd gotten, I could show her my Eightfold Way research and muddle through....
Knock, knock, knock.
"I'm coming in."
Shit. Speak of the tiger and she appeared.
My heart raced because Haspelt showed up out of nowhere.
Barging in at dawn, exactly like my old advisor. Son of a bitch.
At times like this, I had to calm down first. Then the best plan was to reply as calmly as possible and gently coax her into leaving. I forced apart my dry, stick-together lips.
"You're back? No problems...."
"Flare."
"Pardon?"
"The assignment I told you to finish three months ago. How far have you gotten?"
Since I couldn't lie to this person, I spoke the truth.
"I haven't finished it yet."
"You've been sluggish lately. Never mind. Show me what you've got so far."
I took out a scroll I'd thrown together as a placeholder and handed it to her.
If I quantified the work that had gone into the scroll, it amounted to about two days. I had started researching it almost immediately after the entrance exam ended.
Even that was merely an overlay of the Eightfold Way onto a base circuit Haspelt had already prepared.
Professor Haspelt examined the circuit, turning it over with a hum.
She took the bait.
The sight of Haspelt pacing slowly around the stable, deep in thought, was truly a spectacle.
Not that I was mesmerized by her beauty. It was just absurd that a duchess would come to such a shabby place at this hour to pull this crap.
"Not bad, but worse than usual. You have been researching properly, right?"
"Yes."
Roughly forty hours' worth.
Seeing her rack her brain over a scroll that only looked plausible, I felt like I could get through today somehow.
It was then that Haspelt, who had been wandering around, suddenly stopped in front of my desk.
"What is this?"
She unfolded a crumpled piece of paper on the desk and fluttered it.
Wait. Wait a second.
What had I put on the desk?
"It's your exam admission ticket."
"Ah."
I was totally fucked.
"You took the entrance exam behind my back?"
A voice like a thunderbolt struck my ears. When I nodded silently, Professor Haspelt wore a complex, subtle expression.
No matter how much you could read from a face, it was hard to grasp every mixed emotion. Haspelt seemed vaguely afraid, yet she openly displayed discomfort.
I had a guess where that whirlpool of emotions came from.
Her quietly burning eyes turned toward me.
"Applying to the academy on your own without consulting me—have you forgotten your place?"
Something felt like it was boiling up inside my chest.
I had to endure. I still had to endure. Whether to teabag in victory or not—it wasn't too late to decide after my acceptance was determined.
"Who paid the application fee? Don't tell me you squirrelled away the money I gave you for food or something."
"...Yes. I saved up my food money and used it."
"......."
At my answer, Professor Haspelt was at a loss for words.
The claim that I'd saved my food money for the application fee was a complete lie. In truth, Professor Herlein had sponsored me.
I had made that judgment simply because I didn't want to cause trouble for the benefactor who was trying to pull me out of this pit. And since Haspelt and Professor Herlein were supposedly long-time acquaintances, I also didn't want to ruin their personal relationship.
That was the last consideration I could offer. Beyond that, I couldn't yield either.
"Did you forget what we talked about when I bought you, just before you were awarded to some lecher? I said I'd keep you from becoming a plaything, so make yourself worth a thousand gold coins."
Yeah, right.
She was still saying things like that. Not saying what she really should have said.
If the other party wouldn't bring it up, I had no choice but to bring it up myself.
"Professor."
"What?"
"It's already been three months."
"What has?"
"It's already been three months since you hid the fact that you intended to sell me to the imperial palace."
"......!"
At my words, Professor Haspelt's eyes narrowed. She seemed to try desperately to hide it, but being human, she couldn't completely conceal her agitation.
"You kept nagging me to research Flare. But after saying that, why did you go and say you'd sell me off to the imperial palace? If you're going to do something, at least pick one."
"H-How do you know?"
"I saw the papers on your desk. I heard the Second Prince, born of your legal wife, is the biggest scoundrel around. And you tried to sell me off to someone like that, quietly, without a word. What the hell? You do that, and then you tell me, 'I'll keep you from becoming a plaything, so make yourself worth it'?"
The bitterness in the heart doesn't easily dissolve. How many modern people suffer unfair treatment and abuse because of their lowly position as the weak party? That's the way of the weak.
I too had mostly lived that way, and my mindset hadn't changed even after coming to this world.
- If it's tough, just quit. You only live once; you should live freely.
If it had been my sister, she might have thrown her resignation at Haspelt's face and reenacted a slave escape drama, otherworld-style.
And that blood doesn't lie. In response to my unreserved remarks, Professor Haspelt's voice rose.
"Calling His Highness a scoundrel—how irreverent!"
"Come to think of it, that was too much. Making a snap judgment about someone I've never met based on rumors is definitely something I should avoid. But by that logic, the most irreverent one is you, Professor. Forget slavery or whatever; you lack the basics of human relationships."
Haspelt ground her teeth. Hysteria gauge at ninety percent—she'd explode soon.
I knew in my head that if I talked back any more, I'd be totally fucked. But honestly, whether I did or not, I'd already reached a point of no return.
In that case, shouldn't I have said what I had to say?
With the resolve of Caesar crossing the Rubicon, I met Haspelt's eyes.
"I put up with almost everything. When you gave me deadlines, when you told me to hunt magic beasts on the back mountain and bring back magic stones, I did it without complaint."
Even if those things were hard, I thought they helped me. Thanks to being put through the wringer under Haspelt, I'd learned the entirety of fire magic in a short time, and even studied scroll writing and alchemy. If I thought of it as a second round of grad school, it was bearable.
"But don't you think it's inhumane to spring this on me without any notice?"
In the world I came from, there were professors like that.
Bastards who'd assign work the day before and demand it by the next day, or bastards who'd leave your emails unread until the exam day, then announce the final exam schedule through a TA.
For me, those were the kinds of people I absolutely couldn't stand, and over the past few months, Professor Haspelt had become exactly that kind of person.
My patience had run out to the point where I could no longer bear even this.
I spat out my words.
"If you hadn't made the stupid decision to sell me off to the imperial family, I wouldn't have applied for this entrance exam."
"St-Stupid? You just called me stupid?"
Haspelt looked quite surprised. Since the assistant who'd worked silently without complaint for three years had made such a rebuke, the shock must have been doubled.
Even to a third party's eyes, it was obvious that Haspelt's mind had come to a halt. She moved her lips a few times, then barely managed to refine her raw words and spit them out.
"You don't know how the empire has been able to withstand the magic beasts' attacks, do you? The imperial household must remain strong for the empire to exist. Don't judge based on fragmentary information. And when buying and selling a slave, your opinion isn't... No, let's stop there. Anyway, so you neglected Flare research because of the entrance exam?"
I frowned at Haspelt and replied.
"Yes."
I'd done it.
Sis, I was going first. Two chickens and a German Bavarian beer at my grave, you know?
Since it had come to this, I'd say my piece before I died.
"That's why, if you were going to push me around while worrying about the imperial family or whatever, you should've chosen one or the other. You know that magic research is grueling work, Professor. You're in a position to know better than anyone that R&D is hard, yet you bought me based on the false premise that 'all golden-eyed are docile.' And now you're telling me to 'finish a top-grade magic in a few days and then serve as the prince's attendant'? Even a son of a bitch born with loyalty DNA wouldn't obey a master like this─!!"
I wasn't even sure what I'd just spewed. Seeing as Haspelt, who'd been silent for a while, grabbed my wrist, I probably mixed in some profanity.
"Come with me."
Her voice had gone completely dark. I wondered if dark clouds settling on your vocal cords produced such a low tone.
Helplessly, like an ox led to the slaughterhouse, I was dragged along by Haspelt.
The destination wasn't her personal lab. Nor was it the academy's back mountain that I'd thought would be my grave.
Haspelt dragged me to her private residence. After locking the door of the mansion, she spoke in a cold tone.
"Wait here. And don't even think about running."
Even without her saying that, there was nowhere to run. A feeling called fear crawled up my spine.
From the second-floor landing, I heard the sound of spruce stairs being pressed down and springing back. And the clinking sound of something also scraped at my ears.
In particular, the latter was a familiar sound I instinctively knew.
"If you don't want to ruin your life any further, put this on quietly."
In Professor Haspelt's hand was an iron collar.