Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Magic Tower Genius Hides Physics
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Imperial Magic University's entrance exam advisor position... I ended up accepting it.
There was no way to refuse.
I asked Laura.
"So, which division am I advising?"
"Wind Element Magic."
"...Pardon? I was a substitute for 'Sound', so why wind?"
Surely they didn't force it just because sound travels through air as a medium?
'Liquids and solids conduct sound too...'
In fact, even faster and more efficiently.
And the people of this world knew that much.
I'd exchanged letters with the Head of the Sound Magic School and discussed similar things.
Laura replied.
"As far as I know, the divisions set around a few hundred years ago have just carried on unchanged."
"My god."
"All magic divisions are like that."
"...True enough."
Laura was right.
It started with the six elements these people revered.
Water, fire, wind, earth, light, darkness.
Darkness was the absence of light, yet it had its own division.
Dark magic even bundled spells like 'corruption' and 'mind attacks' under the guise of 'black magic'.
...Those are closer to biology.
And just like that, I found myself allied with the Wind Element Magic School.
On the day the exam committee gathered...
"Ooh..."
"That carriage isn't shaking at all. Amazing."
"Heavens."
I drew everyone's stares as I stepped down from the carriage.
The road to the committee chairman's place was rough, so the suspension had really earned its keep.
This was a villa owned by the Magic Tower, located on the outskirts of the imperial capital.
For the next few days, I'd be cooped up here with the other exam committee members.
Until the problems were finished, we'd be "canned"—sealed away, no contact.
"What is this, some national college entrance exam...?"
The area was packed with PhD-level mages.
Most of them were strangers to me.
They were mostly from local Magic Towers, not the capital headquarters.
It was customary for Magic University exams to be crafted primarily by professors from the provincial towers, not the central ones.
I glared at the nameplate on the door.
"Once I go in there, I can't come out, right...?"
The moment I entered the conference room, I felt a slight sense of wrongness.
My role was advisor for the Wind Element Magic division.
But the people inside didn't feel like scholars.
They were warriors.
-"That's why you fainted from rebound last time you used magic."
-"For how many days?"
-"Three."
-"Not bad."
-"Right?"
Their conversation was downright ferocious.
Every one of them sitting there was a muscled brute covered in large and small scars.
'What is this? A Field Mages' veterans' reunion?'
Had I... been kidnapped?
Should I run?
The instant I turned to leave—
Grip.
Someone grabbed my hand.
"You must be!"
"Wrong person. I'm Howard Wallowitz..."
"Isaac Uphills!"
"..."
Damn.
He must've seen the name tag I was wearing.
The musclebound giant said to me,
"An honor to meet you."
"Yep."
"No joke. Thanks to your wave theory, our research made huge progress."
"...I see. Glad to hear it."
Unlike his rough face, the atmosphere wasn't bad.
A Field Mage who did research too?
I checked his name tag.
...What.
"A real wind mage, huh."
"Hm? Who'd you think I was?"
"Nothing."
"No fun."
Starting with Dyke, the other professors' eyes turned to me.
Murmurs.
Whispers reached my ears.
"Oh... that kid's Professor Dolloren's disciple?"
The name of my advisor professor, whom I'd never even met, came up.
"Rumor has it he personally taught Lord Valerius 'calculus'..."
The name of the archmage who'd skipped his special lecture to go hunt enemies came up too.
Oddly few mentions of the princess.
Probably because they were researchers.
As problem vetting began, a strange situation unfolded.
PhDs had made the problems, and now I—no master's degree—was reviewing them.
If not for the halo from Valerius and Dolloren, I'd have been in trouble.
"Researcher Uphills, what do you think of this one? It's a problem where part of the 4th-circle 'Gale Blades' magic circle is left blank for the examinee to fill in."
A professor held out his creation with expectant eyes.
I glanced over the magic circle and cautiously spoke.
"Excellent problem, Professor. But what if we tweak this part a bit?"
"Hm? Why?"
"This structure is a complex form used in 6th-circle circles. Too hard for undergrads. How about using a simplified version under 3rd circle that achieves the same effect?"
"Hm? Where's that?"
"It's in Dr. Granelle's paper from 11 years ago, 'Research on Wind Elements and Mana Fluidity'."
The professor's cheek twitched at my words.
"...I'm Granelle."
The real deal.
What is this?
"Not only did you read and understand my paper, you found an application I missed?"
"...You're too kind. I'm still lacking. Always striving to learn."
After becoming advisor, I'd read every paper mentioning 'wind'.
Couldn't bluff as an advisor without knowing anything.
"Hah hah. Hahaha. Incredible."
Professor Granelle's breathing grew ragged.
"You. Ever thought of transferring to the southern Magic Tower instead of the capital? No need to publish. Just stay by my side...!"
Someone blocked Granelle then.
"That's enough. Or Lord Valerius might hit you with a meteor."
"...Fine, fine."
Granelle smacked his lips and backed off. The mage who'd sent him away said to me,
"First time as advisor, but you're handling it well. Quite skilled."
A monocled, muscular old man.
One wrong word, and he'd snap your back.
All wind mages like this?
My eyes naturally went to his tag.
Crazy.
The chairman.
I straightened up and replied instantly.
"No, sir. Not well at all."
"...Sharp posture. Ever enlisted?"
"No, sir. Of course not."
"Can't say anything but 'no'?"
"..."
"Joking."
Thud.
Chairman Gedric sat next to me. He continued,
"How about the east instead of south? We'll treat you right."
"...That's."
"Joking."
"..."
...This guy.
After that, I kept at the work.
After hours, I started seeing common threads in the PhDs' problems.
'The problems are monotonous.'
So far, they'd all been solvable just by memorizing standard—not secret—magic circles or incantations.
'Other subjects aren't like this...'
I'd confirmed while tutoring Anna.
Entrance exams usually tested application or variation, not such blatant memorization.
'Is wind magic hard to make variation problems for?'
As that thought crossed my mind, the conference room door burst open. A committee staffer rushed in.
"Emergency request! One Water Element Magic PhD has declared they won't create problems. Could Wind take one more? A 4-point high-difficulty one."
One PhD replied,
"Why bring that here? Tell Water."
"...They refused."
"What?"
"Said it's time Wind started handling high-difficulty problems too..."
"..."
The room's mood chilled at the staffer's words.
"..."
"..."
Chairman Gedric, beside me, spoke gravely.
"Got it. Tell them that."
"Yes! Sorry for the intrusion."
Bam.
The door shut.
...What was that about?
One PhD jumped up and shouted,
"Professor Gedric! You can't decide this unilaterally!"
"...It's true we haven't made a high-difficulty problem in over a decade. Our turn now."
"...Damn it."
The PhD who'd snapped at Gedric grumbled curses as he walked away.
But even he couldn't refute the claim itself.
'No high-difficulty in over ten years? Why?'
One professor said self-mockingly,
"Chairman, you know our situation. Wind isn't like water or fire. It's ever-changing, unpredictable."
"I know. Who doesn't know a slight tweak to the base circle can make it unsolvable?"
"What?"
"We have to at least pretend, to save face."
"..."
"Refusing every year is tough too."
Listening, the situation dawned on me.
'They haven't avoided high-difficulty—they can't make them...'
I could guess why.
Wind magic's fundamentals were fluid dynamics. And fluid dynamics' base was the Navier-Stokes equations.
...No one knew the general solution.
Not even old man von Neumann could've.
Like when I manipulated Malakai's blood, approximations to minimize rebound were the best you could do.
If I struggled this much, what about this era's mages?
'Must be hopeless...'
Of course, repeated use of the same spell would grow 'mage intuition', reducing rebound—like Malakai.
But this was an exam hall, not a duel arena.
Exams tested application, not proficiency.
Predicting how altered circles or incantations changed results.
That was the core of high-difficulty problems.
...Impossible with gases.
Gedric finally sighed deeply, resigned.
"Fine. Tell them we can't."
"..."
"Damn, now wind magic will just get called useless again."
Gedric had given up, but the wind professors' faces weren't great.
Who wants to be seen as incompetent?
Shamble, shamble.
As Gedric walked out, he asked us one last time.
"Really can't? Really?"
"..."
"..."
But silence hung in the room.
Should I step up?
No real reason to.
These people and I were strangers.
Just a sub for this year—wait quietly for the meeting to end.
But.
'Feels too familiar, damn it...'
My past life's major, theoretical physics, got that treatment often.
No money, detached from reality—the jeers were daily.
Praise it as genius work one day...
Then fund it properly.
'Ah... didn't want to reveal it here.'
Whoosh.
I shot to my feet and said to Gedric,
"I can make it. A high-difficulty problem."
"What...?"
The surrounding PhDs said,
"Uphills...?"
"Stop. This isn't your place."
Flash.
Gedric raised his hand.
The other professors fell silent.
Gedric asked me,
"...Explain. How can wind magic be 'varied'?"
"..."
I could teach the ideal gas law, but too soon.
Something simpler would do here.
I answered,
"Gases aren't always unpredictable."
I wrote a short equation on the blackboard.
PV = k
Boyle's Law
(For constant temperature and fixed gas amount: volume inversely proportional to pressure)