Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Forgiveness Over Permission
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"It's faster to ask for forgiveness than permission."
Modern psychology and game theory claim this adage is false, but I use it often anyway.
I'm a physicist, not a psychologist.
I'll think whatever I damn well please.
I clutched the "Special Lecture Approval Notice" and strode into Giuseppe's lab.
To inform him I'd enrolled in the special lecture and beg forgiveness.
"Senior Giuseppe, I have something important to—"
But I couldn't even ask.
Giuseppe couldn't focus on my words.
He was sorting documents by hand, just like the first day I'd met him.
What the hell?
Did Excel break?
I approached him and asked.
"Senior, are you okay?"
He barely looked up as I drew near.
"Ah, it's you, Junior. Perfect timing. Come help with this."
I pointed to the Excel magic tool on the corner of his desk.
"Did that thing break? You're still doing paperwork by hand...?"
"No, it's not broken."
Giuseppe continued.
"These are documents Excel can't handle."
I followed his gesture to the stacks of papers.
[Joint Research Proposal with the Magic Survey School - Sound Magic School],
[Inquiry on Practical Applications of Wave Theory - Classical Alchemy School]...
Oh, damn.
These weren't ordinary documents.
They were love letters pouring in to our school because of my experiment at the general assembly.
And the alchemists sent questions instead of a business proposal... Planning to snag the info and bail, huh?
Just looking at the formats revealed each school's conscience.
Alchemy was out of the question for me.
Giuseppe said, nearly in tears.
"Isaac, what should we do with these?"
"...You don't look sad. You seem happy. Why?"
"Because these are proposals to collaborate with our school!"
"Ah."
Partnering with major schools. For a fringe outfit like ours, it was a dream come true.
I pulled out a few sheets and skimmed them.
The contents were as expected.
Could we use wave superposition to boost spell efficiency? Could we create new magic circles that amplify sound in specific zones?
All of them wanted us to handle the key parts.
If that's the case, why collaborate? I'd just do it myself.
Of course... I had no intention of digging deeper into sound or waves here.
I set the documents down and said firmly.
"What if we reject them all?"
"What? Why? We need to stake our claim now to make things easier later!"
He was right. Market dominance mattered for researchers too.
But this was an exception.
"No. The other schools won't figure out anything new even with my theory."
"...What do you mean?"
"The core of that theory requires 'calculus.' Without explaining it, my theory is useless."
Giuseppe tilted his head.
"'Calculus'? Is that one of your secret spells?"
"It's not a secret spell. Just a mathematical method the world doesn't know yet. I'll reveal it someday, but not now."
"In that case..."
Giuseppe pondered briefly, then nodded.
"We'll reject them all for now."
As expected of Senior Giuseppe.
Our school might suck, but I sure had luck with mentors.
Thanks were on the tip of my tongue when he added.
"But... to reject all these, we'll need a good excuse. Otherwise, the other schools will complain."
"Hm... True."
His concern was perfectly reasonable.
Researchers were precious snowflakes with zero social skills.
In the worst case, they'd start a power play against our school.
What to do...?
Ah.
There was one way.
Would it work, though...?
I pulled out a parchment from the administration office.
"How about this?"
[Special Lecture Approval Notice.
Recipient: Isaac Uphills.
Lecture: Advanced Magic Structure.
Instructor: Archmage Valerius.]
If the student was busy with another class, what could they do?
If they were salty, go complain to "Archmage Valerius." Whoever he was, he'd keep me if he didn't want his lecture canceled.
"This is..."
Giuseppe's eyes scanned the text, freezing on the final name.
His mouth slowly dropped open.
"Va... Archmage Valerius's special lecture?! Oh my god..."
"Yes?"
He snatched the parchment and checked it repeatedly.
Was it that impressive?
Wasn't it just some near-canceled class?
Giuseppe continued.
"Perfect! With 'special lecture' as the excuse, no other professor will dare complain."
"..."
What the hell.
What made this special lecture so scary to everyone?
And so, the first day of the special lecture arrived.
For the record, I never did figure out what made it special.
Giuseppe brushed off all my questions with "You'll see when you go."
The classroom at the appointed time was utterly ordinary.
Desks, blackboard. Windows.
Including me, there were only five or six students.
Most seemed like seniors.
They had that "dark aura of defeat" my master's first-semester peers lacked.
And among them...
One graduate student with a familiar face.
"Wh-what are you doing here?!"
Her eyes went wide when she saw me.
Does she know me?
Her neatly styled crimson hair screamed nobility. Real deal.
She continued.
"Didn't you reject my proposal?!"
...What? Who even are you?
I thought back.
Red hair.
Fancy southern accent.
Ah.
The puzzle clicked.
"You were the multi-level marketer from the cafeteria."
She tilted her head.
"Multi-level? Is that an insult...?"
"No. Not at all."
Sweat beaded on my forehead.
This girl had sharp instincts.
Better drop it.
I changed the subject smoothly.
"I said I'd think about it last time. I did, and decided to join the special lecture."
"...I thought that was a polite rejection. My mistake."
Her face brightened a bit.
She extended her hand.
"Ahem. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Let me reintroduce myself. I'm Gwendolyn Everglow."
"...Isaac Uphills."
Even as we shook, my mind raced.
Everglow, huh...
The Everglows ruled the empire's south as counts.
"..."
"..."
After introductions, awkward silence fell.
But we'd be classmates now, so I had to say something.
Grad students were delicate; they could get offended in situations like this.
If others didn't talk to them, they sulked.
Tough luck—start the conversation yourself.
Need some icebreaker...
Several lines popped into my head.
"The moon's bright tonight. Must be at perigee on its elliptical orbit, lined up straight with the sun and Earth. Haha."
"Know how to make a sailboat? Differentiate a boat with respect to time. The 'dot' becomes a sail. Hahaha."
...Yeah, that'd be a disaster.
What do you say to a real noble for small talk?
Gwendolyn broke the silence.
"By the way, the professor's late."
"...Yeah."
No instructor yet.
The clock had passed the start time.
Gwendolyn muttered.
"Even Archmage Valerius is tardy. How curious."
How curious?
Her ladylike reaction was the curious part.
Then, the blackboard stirred.
Chalk letters appeared on the empty board.
[Orientation: This classroom is...]
The other students murmured.
"Whoa, the chalk's moving?"
"Telekinesis?"
"Without looking? Must be Valerius."
Scratch scratch.
[Orientation: This classroom is an illusion. Find the correct path.]
Ha.
I couldn't help a dry laugh.
"What, is this special lecture some hunter exam?"
"Hunter exam?"
"...Something like that."
The room descended into chaos.
Everyone started casting spells to find the "real classroom."
One student said.
"What? Dispel illusion isn't working."
"No illusion here?"
"Or maybe we can't even detect the archmage's spell..."
I stood quietly and paced the room.
Absorbing the physical layout.
Light sources, object positions, shadows they cast.
Everything seemed perfectly normal.
...Except one spot.
An old knight's armor decoration in the corner.
Its shadow from the single ceiling light was normal.
But on the adjacent wall, faint and dim, a second shadow flickered at a different angle.
Impossible.
One light source, two shadows? No.
And it's not a weird light either...
This violated the fundamental premise that light travels in straight lines.
Gwendolyn approached as I stared at the armor.
"What're you looking at?"
"That armor. See anything off?"
"Hm... Scratches on the helmet. No collector value."
"...Not that."
No.
I'll handle this solo.
I waved my hand, but the faint shadow lingered.
If that shadow was real, an invisible second light source existed in the room.
I traced both shadows backward.
One from the ceiling lamp.
The other from...
"Beyond the wall?"
I approached the wall casting the shadow.
No reaction when I touched it.
"Just a wall...?"
No. Had to be more.
I trusted my calculations.
The light source shone through this wall onto the armor.
The wall was the problem.
Looks like the real classroom's behind here...
Now, how to get through.
Simplest, surest way: brute force.
I pulled a steel ball from my pocket.
No wall was tougher than an orc skull.
Whoosh!
The ball spun from my hand toward one spot on the wall.
No crash as expected.
Thud.
It bounced off weakly, defying action-reaction.
"What the...?"
Absorbs physical impact but lets light through?
Magic beyond comprehension.
But I had the solution.
Not some 'light isolator' that only passes one way...
Counter with light.
Perfect spell: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Or LASER for short.
I focused bodily mana at my fingertip in the air.
ΔE = E2 - E1 = hν = hc/λ
Population inversion on air molecules. Check.
Now stimulated emission and resonance...
That instant.
-'That's enough.'
A low, raspy voice echoed directly in my mind.
Telepathy magic.
I reflexively halted mana focus.
-'No idea what spell you were casting, but it looked damn dangerous. You're through.'
My body passed straight through the wall.
"What is this... Oh."
Disorientation faded as light hit my eyes.
"The light source on the armor. Nailed it."
Beyond lay another classroom.
A massive celestial model rotated slowly overhead; walls brimmed with shelves from floor to ceiling.
An old man stood at the center.
That's Valerius?
Aware of my entrance, he asked without looking up from his book.
"Illusion on the wall or the light—which did you suspect first?"
"...The light."
Thud.
Valerius closed the book.
Turned to me.
"Hmph. Eyes for mana flow are worthless."
"..."
"But eyes that pierce the world's truths? Useful. Sit. Have tea."
He smirked.
"Takes those idiots beyond the wall a while to arrive."