Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Levitation Stone Breakthrough
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I immediately followed Dolloren to her vault.
Dolloren pointed to the deepest part of the vault's ceiling.
"Look at that."
A hollow laugh escaped me.
"Hah... it's real."
A single stone was stuck to the ceiling, floating there.
The fist-sized stone was emitting a faint blue glow.
After scanning the ceiling with detection magic, I confirmed the stone wasn't adhered to it in any way.
It really was a levitation stone.
...Unfortunately, though, detection magic didn't work on the levitation stone itself.
That's why I hadn't noticed it last time.
'Didn't detection magic used to be unbeatable?'
Calculations and detection.
These two formed the core pillars of my magic.
Lately, however, objects that slipped past my detection were popping up more and more.
The black heart, the isolation realm, ancient artifacts, and now this levitation stone.
Just then, the bank manager spoke up from beside me.
"Um... so there really are no gold transactions today, right?"
He'd come along as an observer to prevent any potential accidents.
Dolloren shouted.
"What?! You don't trust me?!"
"..."
The bank manager said nothing in response.
...Dolloren wasn't exactly the most reliable person.
The bank manager never dropped his suspicious gaze until the end.
Ignoring him, Dolloren turned to me.
"Come on, grab it quick so we can go. We've got research to do with that thing."
"How?"
"Use telekinesis, obviously."
"...But we don't know the stone's weight."
"Hm. You'll have to go by feel."
"..."
This was driving me crazy.
I said to Dolloren,
"Could the School Head herself move it, perhaps?"
"Hm? Sure, why not."
Dolloren reached out toward the levitation stone.
Woooong-!
The levitation stone let out a vibrating hum as it flew into Dolloren's hand.
There had to be massive rebound from applying magic to it...
But Dolloren showed no visible reaction.
Her overwhelming magical affinity was minimizing the mana consumption and rebound.
As expected of a dragon slayer.
With our business done, we exited the vault.
Only then did the bank manager let out a sigh of relief.
As we left, I asked Dolloren walking beside me,
"How exactly are you holding the levitation stone right now?"
Dolloren pondered briefly before giving a curt reply.
"By feel."
"..."
I wanted to ask what the hell that meant, but I kept my mouth shut.
There was no point demanding logical explanations from geniuses like her.
You rarely got a proper answer anyway.
The next day, I began researching the levitation stone.
The levitation stone was quietly stuck to the lab ceiling.
'How is that even possible?'
The levitation stone was clearly generating continuous repulsion against the Earth's center.
Meaning, even now, pressure was being applied to the ceiling.
Yet there were no physical changes on the ceiling whatsoever.
I pushed my detection magic to its limits, scrutinizing the levitation stone.
But all I got back was noisy static.
The black heart, the isolation realm, ancient artifacts.
It felt exactly like when I'd encountered those.
A perfect black box that my abilities couldn't penetrate.
'How do I even start researching something like this?'
Cold sweat trickled down my back unbidden.
Unlike me, though, everyone else in the lab was buzzing with anticipation.
Giuseppe was smugly making a sandwich, while Dolloren skimmed through records from our last gravity magic experiment, grinning to herself.
"Wow... making a ship that flies through the sky with that."
Anna's sparkling eyes turned to the ceiling.
'Shouldn't have mentioned airships...'
Had I carelessly brought it up yesterday?
'It's not like I knew detection magic wouldn't work on the levitation stone.'
Anna continued.
"Once the airship's complete, we could cross to another continent without dodging deep-sea magical beasts, right?"
"...Probably."
Linking a vague idea straight to a practical application.
How was my little sister this smart?
Unlike some people, she'd never starve out there.
Normally I'd pat her head, but not today.
Honestly, I felt a bit urgent.
'This... might be impossible to research.'
If detection magic didn't work, I couldn't precisely measure its physical properties.
No measurements meant no hypotheses, no verification.
Research couldn't even begin.
I changed the subject.
"Sis... don't you have class today?"
"Oh, Symbolic Incantation today, but it's been on break since Celestial Symbols week."
"..."
I could guess without asking.
Those breaks were because Principia had revealed a new planet's existence.
Incantations also served as self-suggestion to stabilize a mage's thinking.
So they used familiar legends or symbolic systems.
Anna's class was probably about compressing incantations more efficiently using myths and stories tied to celestial symbols.
With a new planet discovered, planet-based incantations were surely being uprooted from the ground up.
'How many people's livelihoods have I wrecked?'
As I stayed silent, Anna boldly replied.
"No need for you to worry, bro. If they're bitter, they should adapt on their own."
"Ooh..."
Unbelievable confidence and shamelessness from my little sister.
'We're not blood-related, but...'
Still, impressive.
I should learn from that attitude.
I silently patted my sister's head.
Yeah. Let's get back to it with renewed vigor.
...Three weeks passed like that.
No results whatsoever.
It wasn't for lack of effort.
I'd poured all my knowledge and mana into this research.
My head throbbed from magic failure rebounds.
...For reference, attempts to gauge the levitation stone's properties via rebound were also blocked.
The rebound varied every time, even with the same spell.
The levitation stone still refused my understanding.
'No... am I the one not understanding?'
Maybe I was doing something wrong.
I sought advice from those around me.
But the responses were dismal.
"Isn't that just how it is?"
Gwendolyn.
"Detection magic not working is normal, right?"
Liam.
"That's why they once tried lumping it with wind magic trajectories. Of course, wind magic's different now. Hahaha."
Gedric.
Even a tenured 70-year-old professor's half-assed lecture was better than this.
Everyone else was the same.
They all stuck to "that's just how it is."
Just in case, I wrote to Count Ludwig and Her Highness.
[Unfortunately, that's just how it's known to be.]
...Count Ludwig was out.
[As expected. The depth of questions from someone who even wondered why Earth orbits the sun... it's on another level.]
Her Highness went off on a tangent.
Damn it.
I slammed my head on the lab desk and muttered,
"Dismissing it as 'unknown' is too much, isn't it?"
"..."
"..."
A brief silence fell, then Dolloren replied.
"That's what makes it fun, right? That's why I always explore ancient ruins and unauthorized dungeons."
"...You enjoy the unknown itself."
"That's what being a mage is."
She grinned brightly.
'No wonder students from other schools love our School Head.'
In my view, our school had been neglected for years largely because of Dolloren.
If she didn't spout romantic nonsense like this.
We'd have way more juniors with rings through their noses.
I muttered softly,
"If enjoying the unknown makes you a mage, maybe I should turn in my mage badge."
"..."
Scientists rarely encounter such pure unknowns.
Science targets what we know we don't know, not what we don't even know we don't know.
However...
I blankly stared up at the lab ceiling.
The levitation stone stuck there was the epitome of "don't even know what I don't know."
Like superstring theory or simulation cosmology.
Unverifiable no matter what, more akin to religion than science.
How do you tackle something like that?
Then Giuseppe said to me,
"Don't think so urgently."
Tap tap.
He patted my back and continued.
"You have to know when to rest if you want to keep researching long-term."
"Ah, you're right."
His words snapped me out of it.
Ever since coming to this world, things had gone too smoothly—I'd forgotten.
Research is supposed to hit walls like this.
Yeah. Back to basics.
My basics...
Were to drown hardships in booze.
I turned to Giuseppe.
"Senior, you free for dinner tonight?"
"Huh?"
Booze isn't bad.
Life is.
The great physicist Wolfgang Pauli lived with a bottle in hand.
Though he drank enough to need psychiatric help...
I vowed to drink moderately.
Moderately.
That night, Giuseppe and I drank in the lab.
I'd asked Dolloren too, but she dodged, saying it was unseemly for a School Head to join.
'Not necessarily...'
Glug glug.
I generously poured distilled liquor into my glass.
Giuseppe pointed at the distilled liquor bottle.
"What's this?"
"Cold fire. Let's fill it with the moon and drink."
"Oh."
Giuseppe was impressed.
"...Surprisingly poetic side to you."
"Just kidding. It's vacuum-distilled liquor."
"Vacuum?"
"Yeah. Want to try?"
"Sure."
I poured into Giuseppe's glass too.
Glug glug.
We clinked glasses wordlessly.
Clink-
With a clear ring, I sipped, letting the liquor coat my tongue.
A clean alcohol scent enveloped my taste buds, sliding smoothly down my throat.
Giuseppe, meanwhile, downed his in one gulp.
"Crazy...! That's super strong stuff!"
Whether I was startled or not, Giuseppe just marveled.
Gulp.
"This is the real deal. Light and smooth."
Grinning, he held his empty glass up to the moonlight outside.
"Vacuum... Made with your theory too, I assume?"
"Yep."
"Definitely... Clear enough to hold the moon perfectly."
My face heated up.
Embarrassing to have my joke thrown back at me.
Giuseppe gazed at the moon in his glass and continued.
"Honestly, even if this research fails, it's fine."
"Huh?"
"Look at all you've accomplished alone so far. It's okay to skip the unknowns."
"Is it?"
Giuseppe nodded.
"Someday someone else will pick up the baton."
"Hmm."
He tapped my shoulder.
"You're already a full-fledged mage. So no more weird talk about turning in your badge."
"You heard that?"
"Wonder if only I did? School Head heard too."
"Gah..."
Should I apologize later?
"No need. Dolloren would be happy as long as you stay a mage."
"A mage..."
Was I a mage?
By the standard of using magic, yes.
But my magic was a bit different from others'.
"Selfishly speaking, my magic's pretty unique."
"True."
"Still a mage?"
"Of course!"
"..."
Yeah.
Silly question. It was obvious.
I was a mage.
This was a world of magic.
The periods of planets and comets, constellation layouts—all matched Earth...
But this world had magic.
I'd been thinking too rigidly until now.
This was a world where magic existed, different from Earth.
Maybe it was hasty to judge everything by Earth's physics laws.
I needed to accept there were realms beyond my reach.
Someday, someone would theorize even the unknowns I couldn't grasp.
Even if in a form utterly unlike existing science, someone would carry the torch.
Giuseppe said,
"If you're still worried, look at the pendant around your neck."
"Huh?"
"It's a gift from the Dean. She never abandons researchers she personally gifts."
"Ooh..."
I fiddled with the memorize pendant around my neck.
I hadn't known it held such meaning.
'Come to think of it, this pendant's an ancient magic artifact, but my magic worked fine on it.'
I channeled detection magic toward the pendant.
Borrowing the booze's courage, I let instinct guide me.
Like a proper mage.
Suddenly, even the magic structures I couldn't see before came into sharp focus.
'This is... a variant of location-tracking magic?'
Why was that there?
Did the Dean cast it herself?
Why?
Questions flooded my mind, but that wasn't the point now.
Beneath the location-tracking magic, the memorize pendant still resisted detection.
As expected of an ancient artifact.
'Wait. That means...'
The Dean had engraved her own magic atop this detection-proof ancient artifact.
Bam.
I shot to my feet.
"Wh-what is it?"
"Did you find it?"
"...Find what?"
"How to fly using the levitation stone."
I still had no clue about the levitation stone's operating principle.
But I'd found a way to use it.
The opposite of our last gravity magic experiment.
I might commercialize it without knowing the theory.
Like flying planes without solving Navier-Stokes generally.
The next morning.
Snore, snore.
Giuseppe was out cold, head on the lab desk.
Last night's distilled liquor had been potent.
I was beside him, "holding" the levitation stone.
It no longer clung to the ceiling.
"Success..."
Heh heh heh.
All-nighter paid off.
I replayed the Dean's magic structure in my mind.
Forcing location-tracking magic onto a undetectable target to evade detection.
Like hiding the treasure by swallowing it in a treasure hunt.
Close to cheating, but since I benefited, I couldn't complain.
Thanks, long-lived GOAT.
I modified the "coordinate designation" part with gravity control magic based on general relativity.
"Let's see some real movement now."
Rμν - ½ R gμν = Gμν
The levitation stone's force warped the surrounding spacetime.
Matter tells spacetime how to curve; curved spacetime tells matter how to move.
I didn't know the levitation stone's exact physical quantities, but as matter, it had to follow spacetime.
Up, down, left, right.
Freely, like an extension of my limbs.
Mana consumption was negligible.
Somehow, the levitation stone bore the entire load.
Then the door opened and someone entered.
"Ugh, booze smell first thing in the morning..."
Dolloren.
"Hm...?"
Her gaze landed on the levitation stone hovering in the lab's center.
She asked me,
"...What the heck is that."
"I used gravity magic harnessing the levitation stone's power."
Dolloren tilted her head.
"How?"
"...Honestly, I don't really know."
"..."
Not the answer she wanted?
I adjusted my reply casually.
"It just worked out after fiddling around."
"No... I mean... how?!"