Strange Feeling (1)
Sunday, I truly slept.
After treating the young lady to an outing with illusion magic, I went into my room and collapsed into sleep.
I slept so comfortably I almost wondered how it was even possible. Was it because I had been running around all Saturday?
Monday morning felt especially refreshing. With my current condition, I was sure I could handle Iren’s pranks at the Academy with room to spare.
That was how I felt—until I arrived at the Academy.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
“Stop that thing!”
“There’s someone crushed under here!”
“Who the hell put a retriever AI into a golem?!”
The Academy was pure chaos.
Hmm.
No, seriously—why?
As I stared blankly, someone shouted at me.
“Young Master Katram!”
“Uh, yeah?”
It was Karl. Why did he always call out to me right when I was about to forget he existed?
“Perfect timing. Please help!”
“What the hell is going on?”
“The assignment results are running wild!”
I had to figure out what connection there could possibly be between an assignment, its results, and this current disaster.
But there was no need. Someone stood right in front of me ready to explain.
“There was an assignment on the automation of magic, wasn’t there?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“I thought if we applied magic with algorithms to golems, we might create a factory suitable for mass production. I set up a hypothesis and applied it to the experimental golems at the Academy.”
“And so this mess happened?”
“I have no idea where the error occurred!”
Just looking, over a hundred golems were causing mayhem. He had engraved that insane algorithm into every single one of them?
This guy—bringing the Truth Elixir last time and everything—why did he keep pulling such bizarre stunts?
“Fortunately, no one has been injured yet.”
I was genuinely curious about the home education of the Laufen Count family. Because right now, more than a few students had been struck by golems, sent flying, and knocked unconscious. Did the House of Laufen consider death the baseline for “injury”?
“Wait. The professors?”
“They said since a student caused this, the students should resolve it among themselves, and they’re just watching.”
“I’m going crazy.”
This was the Empire’s top educational institution?
No. Maybe they were subtly conveying that you needed to be able to solve problems of this level just to remain enrolled at the Academy.
“Have you tried destroying them? They’re only training golems anyway.”
They shouldn’t have dungeon-style magic nullification effects. But Karl immediately denied it.
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“The professors said this mess happened due to a logic circuit error, so we have to resolve the situation by normalizing the circuits.”
“Can’t we just ignore that and destroy them?”
“Department Head Alketo personally cast reinforcement magic on the golems. Even if Young Lady Irina puts her full power into smashing them, not a single scratch appears.”
“Crazy.”
Irina Varian. Currently the top of the knight division, and the female student who had claimed she fell for me last time.
Rumor had it she could crush steel with her bare hands, and she had attacked with mana as well—yet not a single scratch?
Destroying golems of that durability wouldn’t end with just the golems. You’d have to burn down several Academy buildings to finish the job.
Of course, I could dismantle Department Head Alketo’s reinforcement magic. Even now I could see the flaws in the reinforcement magic woven among the golems.
But I didn’t want any more attention. Just a few days ago, hadn’t I suffered for two solid days because of the herb warehouse incident?
If I tore apart Alketo’s reinforcement magic like paper this time, another disaster of people flocking to me would erupt. The stamina I had recovered over the weekend would vanish in a single day.
“Isn’t there any way?”
“Well.”
In the end, I had to make the other students resolve it without me directly intervening. Hmm.
“First, show me the circuit you injected.”
“Here it is.”
Karl handed over the blueprint. Let’s see what the problem was.
As expected, Academy students are Academy students.
The blueprint was surprisingly not shoddy. Rather, it exquisitely combined the latest magic engineering technology to a level ordinary undergrads couldn’t understand at all.
Moreover, it was amazing that from my glance there was no problem. A blueprint with no issues even after I scanned it once?
It was a bit much to say this, but a butler’s essential requirement was finding flaws. As the one overseeing the management of the ducal residence, I couldn’t tolerate even an inch of disorder.
I prided myself on the review ability honed at the Katram Ducal House. That I couldn’t find anything with one scan proved the high level of Karl’s blueprint.
Yet a problem had still occurred, which meant—
“Rather, it was a problem because it was too good.”
“Yes?”
“Look at this.”
I tapped a section of the blueprint. The part about recreating a pseudo-personality according to the situation.
“What’s the problem with that part?”
“You assumed it would collect surrounding information and create the necessary pseudo-personality on its own. Right?”
“That’s right.”
“The attempt is good, but the place was bad. What do you think would happen if you raised a baby only by showing it gang fights?”
“Ah.”
Karl’s face hardened as he finally realized the problem.
In other words, it was a materials problem. Suppose it collected surrounding information to create a situation-appropriate pseudo-personality.
Then the information that should be around had to be infinitely pure and only related to the work. If you wanted to make a factory, you should have placed only work-related items around it.
But Karl, thinking of inputting abundant knowledge, had taken the golems outside the Academy. As a result, they collected every scrap of surrounding information and formed a pseudo-personality that ran wild freely.
It was no different from a human growing up seeing only things bad for their emotions. Since a pseudo-personality far more immature than a human had absorbed surrounding information indiscriminately, this rampage had been inevitable.
“Th-then we need to fix the circuit.”
“How, when they’re rampaging like that?”
“Ugh.”
Karl sighed as if troubled. Yeah. I was troubled too. How were we supposed to clean up this mess?
“Oh my, something interesting is happening, isn’t it?”
A sudden familiar voice. Karl and I turned around.
It was Iren, who had just arrived at the Academy. Karl bowed his head.
“Your Highness. Are you well?”
“Yeah. Sure. But I told you not to take excessive formalities at the Academy.”
“I’m doing it because I want to.”
“It would be nice if you did it slickly like you do to Frey.”
“……?”
What did I just hear? Treat her the way he treats me? Were you originally that casual, Iren?
No, no. She was just a classmate, right? Iren was simply saying to treat her comfortably.
But why did it feel strangely uncomfortable?
“Frey?”
“Ah, yes?”
“What’s going on right now?”
I briefly explained the situation to Iren. She stared at me intently.
“But the fact that the situation isn’t over yet means—”
“Iren. Think about last week.”
“Oh……”
Iren rolled her eyes. She seemed to recall the professors and students who had flocked in overwhelming numbers.
“Right. So you’re leaving it alone.”
“That’s right.”
“But we can’t just leave that. We have to attend lectures.”
Iren, stroking her chin, sparkled her eyes. It was the pattern when she almost certainly had an interesting idea for herself.
“Then shall we make a bet, Frey?”
“A bet here?”
“Yeah. Competing on who resolves the situation more excellently—indirectly.”
“Hmm.”
It wasn’t a bad proposal. After all, this situation needed to be resolved, and I didn’t want to step forward directly.
But I wanted to add one more condition.
“Instead, please let me choose the bet reward this time.”
“Huh? You, Frey? What’s gotten into you?”
“You always chose, Iren. It’s about time I choose for fairness.”
“That’s true. So, what do you want, Frey?”
“Well, if Iren wins, I’ll hang out with you even after school for a week.”
“If you win?”
“Please don’t talk to anyone other than me for a week.”
“Huh?”
Iren stared at me blankly. Actually, I also doubted the words I had just spat out.
I had clearly intended to lightly ask for Iren’s weakness or something. But what came out of my mouth was something completely different.
Had I been influenced by the personality circuits of the rampaging golems right now? Or what Iren had said to Karl earlier……
No. This was just to mess with Iren.
“Even for Iren, if you only talk to me for a week, it’ll be quite troublesome, right? This will be fun to watch later.”
“Y-you, for that purpose?”
“Why. Do you think I have ulterior motives toward Iren? No such thing, so wake up from that dream. Will you accept?”
“Fine. Frey. I think I need to remind you that you’ve lost everything so far.”
No more words were needed.
Iren and I immediately began helping our classmates—indirectly.