Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Magic Tower Genius Hides Physics
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The problem was straightforward.
A massive boulder was plummeting toward poor David's head.
How could I save him with the absolute minimum energy?
I picked up my quill and dove right into the solution.
Meteor magic was essentially a kinetic bombardment weapon.
It dropped from such high altitude that it reached terminal velocity, building up kinetic energy on the way down.
But this time, it was starting from just 10 meters up.
'Not enough height to hit terminal velocity.'
Anyone who didn't anticipate that and just calculated based on standard meteor magic destructive power would fail problem one outright.
'Clever thinking.'
Just because the living standards were medieval didn't mean everyone was an idiot.
I sketched out a telekinesis spell to move David's body out of the way.
Dodging would be easier than intercepting it.
'Next problem.'
I flipped through the exam booklet.
Most were about fixing flaws in magic circle structures or improving spells.
Nothing else really stood out after the meteor dodge.
By the time I'd solved twenty out of the thirty questions...
Bang.
The exam room door flew open, and a blonde woman in a toga strode in.
'Is it okay to make that much noise during the test?'
Wouldn't someone complain about the door slamming?
Wait.
Looking closer, her ears were long.
'An elf.'
Murmurs rippled through the room.
"...No way, the Dean?"
"Holy shit..."
...So the Magic Tower Dean was an elf.
'Good thing she wasn't a tenured professor.'
I glanced up for a moment.
But I still had to finish the exam.
I lowered my head and focused on the next problem.
Joseph must really hate Anna. Fair enough.
I focused on the problem details.
'Damn, look at all these variables.'
I hated problems like this.
Too many calculations, and the satisfaction of solving them was underwhelming.
Scratch, scratch.
If only I had an engineering calculator... but of course, nothing like that existed here.
I used Fourier's law to find the conductive heat transfer rate.
From there, I back-calculated the required heat, factored in heat loss during the fireball toss, and derived the initial temperature.
In the process, I accounted for distance to target, launch speed, atmospheric pressure, temperature, and more. For missing data, I expressed the required mana as a function of variables.
Finally solved it.
Now Joseph could effectively take out his senior researcher.
As I moved to the next problem, something caught the corner of my eye.
I glanced over...
"..."
"..."
Sapphire-blue eyes were staring right at me.
Shit. The elf dean.
Why was she watching me?
Should I say hi?
...Nah.
She wouldn't expect greetings mid-exam, right?
Back to the problem.
Scratch, scratch.
Next one.
Scratch, scratch.
Even as I worked, I felt her gaze.
'When the hell is she leaving?'
It was when I finished the last problem and set down my quill.
Whoosh.
The dean's shadow vanished from beside me.
I looked up; she was already heading to the other side of the room.
A faint trace of mana lingered behind her.
'Finally gone.'
I let out a sigh of relief and reached to submit my answer sheet.
Shiver.
Goosebumps crawled up my spine.
'Something tells me I shouldn't turn this in as is...'
Why would the Magic Tower Dean personally watch me solve problems?
Because I'm handsome?
As if.
'Isaac's' face was neat enough, but not that level.
Professors only paid attention when they smelled 'slave'—er, 'grad student' potential.
I looked over my answers.
...In a world that hadn't even defined infinity, my sheet was crammed with nonlinear differential equations.
'Too much?'
Hmm... yeah, probably.
Better safe than sorry.
Even a stone bridge deserves a tap before crossing.
Fame? Attention? Personal scrutiny from the dean?
Not my goal.
My one and only aim: 'Graduate quietly, dodge the draft, and live the sweet life.'
The elf dean's interest was poison.
I quickly scanned the room.
The proctors were busy watching other examinees. Now was my chance...
Scrape.
I lightly scraped the top of my answer sheet with the quill.
Then concentrated a tiny bit of mana at my fingertip.
Shirrk.
Like peeling parchment, I shaved off a thin, even layer.
The parchment peeled away like film, revealing a clean surface underneath.
And on that fresh layer, I quickly scribbled answers that fit this world's conventions.
Thus, I submitted my doctored exam.
After the graduate school entrance exam.
In the dean's office on the 49th floor, just below the Magic Tower's pinnacle.
The dean was receiving reports on the exam from the senior professors.
Below the dean were the school heads.
Below them, the senior professors.
Two ranks separated them, so the professors stood rigid.
One spoke up.
"This year's entrance exam had appropriate difficulty... but the examinees' skills fell short of expectations."
"..."
The dean's gaze turned to the bald professor.
Chatter. His jaw trembled.
"Tell me the truth."
"...Well."
"I'm not cutting your research budget. Speak."
"...The problems were too hard. Quite a few submitted blank sheets."
Startle.
Gazes converged on the bald professor.
The elf dean before them, 'Magarta Magica,' was a survivor who'd endured centuries in the Magic Tower.
She looked like a girl in her twenties, but inside lurked a 500-year-old viper.
Anything could happen here.
As the other professors tensed...
Snicker.
The dean smiled. She said,
"The difficulty was as expected. If they can't handle this, they shouldn't dream of joining the Magic Tower."
"..."
"So, you've reviewed the answer sheets thoroughly?"
Yes!
Yes!
The dean nodded at their affirmations.
"Then tell me the promising candidates this year. Starting from the left—senior professor of the Flame Element Magic School."
"Yes, ma'am!"
The named professor continued.
"The most promising is the only daughter of the Everglow countess."
"Her last page was blank."
"...Most are."
"Really? Next."
The professors went one by one.
"The eldest son of the Castaine barony showed talent in alchemy..."
"The granddaughter of the Stoneheaven trading company excels in theory construction..."
They recommended rookies from their own schools worth pushing.
Mostly nobles or trading company affiliates.
Once everyone finished, the dean asked,
"That's all?"
"Pardon...?"
"Strange. Never mind. Go handle your business."
Wave, wave. She flicked her hand.
A clear dismissal.
Bow. The senior professors bowed and withdrew.
"Oh, leave the original answer sheets here. I'll review them myself."
"Yes, understood."
Alone in her office, the dean started with the students the professors had mentioned.
Flip.
"What the hell did they even learn at Magic University..."
The dean frowned.
The answers were dismal.
"This one seemed decent..."
The black-haired boy from the exam room, with those beautiful eyes.
He'd written solid answers, yet no professor mentioned him.
'His name was...'
Isaac Uphills.
She'd committed it to memory just in case.
"Uphills... isn't that a surname they give war orphans?"
From war orphan to Magic Tower applicant.
Must have insane ambition.
'Guys like that are fun to raise.'
She rifled through the sheets for Isaac's name.
"Found it."
Isaac's answer sheet in hand.
"Let's see... Huh...?"
In her memory, Isaac had solved it in such an intriguing way...
But this sheet was full of lackluster answers.
"Relative grading, so he passed... but this isn't what I saw."
Even a simple fireball yielded varied results across environments.
That student had meticulously accounted for every variable, crafting precise magic.
This wasn't it.
"Something's off."
Magarta's eyes gleamed.
Mana gathered in her gaze.
If it wasn't visible to the naked eye, she'd just use invisible light.
Her eyes functioned like an X-ray scanner, piercing Isaac's parchment.
Faintly erased text began to emerge.
q = -kA (dT/dx)
q = kA (T₁ - T₂) / L
∂T/∂t = α (∂²T/∂x²)
Esoteric symbols and formulas filled the page.
"A cipher?"
It looked like one.
Mages sometimes used complex symbols to hide their secrets.
"No idea what it means, but the answer's spot on..."
Not just this one—every problem was the same.
Thorough cipher solutions, but correct answers.
"...How did he solve it?"
Not intuition. Calculations, then... but his cipher wouldn't crack.
No matter how she tried.
"..."
Eerie.
Her gaze locked on Isaac's sheet.
She checked the roster.
"...Who the hell is going to mentor this kid?"
Flip, flip.
Her hand stopped abruptly.
"What? Magic Survey School?"
The least popular school in the tower—practically abandoned.
"Why go there?"
From orphan to here, he had ambition...
Why choose such a backwater?
Doubt filled her mind.
In her centuries of life, she'd never seen a human like this.
A smile crept onto the dean's lips.
"Hmm... interesting."
A few days later.
Bang bang bang!
Fierce knocking jolted me awake.
"Is Isaac Uphills in?"
"Ugh, who the hell this early..."
Still half-asleep, I opened the door.
A courier in Magic Tower uniform stood there.
"What's this about?"
"A Magic Tower graduate school acceptance notice for Isaac Uphills!"
He handed it over formally.
'As expected.'
I'd done decently enough, and no one applied to that school.
Failure would've been weirder.
I read the letter.
It listed my assigned dorm room and report time to school HQ.
'Crazy... says I can start today if I want.'
Grad slaves—er, students—should show their faces to professors ASAP.
Even with flexibility, act like a perfectly inelastic body.
"Where's the Magic Survey School?"
I asked the courier.
It had to be somewhere in the tower. He looked puzzled for a second.
"Uh... not in the main building."
"What? Then where?"
"Well... they moved to the annex a while back."
"Annex?"
"Y-yeah."
He averted his eyes, mumbling.
Probably kicked out for poor performance.
The annex...
Made sense. A school with no money or people wouldn't hold prime real estate.
Whatever. The annex sounded better.
The main building connected straight to the professor quarters—too inconvenient.
For a grad student, annex was ideal.
"Where's the annex?"
Reluctantly, he pointed behind the tower, toward the dense woods.
"O-over there."
I tipped him, packed my things, and headed out.
Beyond the majestic main building, down a path through the trees.
There it was.
"Whoa... what the hell."
An abandoned stone building, devoid of any sign of life.
I stepped inside.
Dust coated the floor so thick even my footsteps were muffled.
At the hall's end, a worn, faded nameplate hung on a door.
[Magic Survey School]
The door was plastered with ancient notices.
No work to be done here, that was clear.
"...Perfect."
Smiling in satisfaction, I gripped the doorknob.