The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 133: What Are You Doing, Sis? (13)

Chapter 133: What Are You Doing, Sis? (13)

Rosemary sat on the cafeteria chair humming while swinging her legs.

It worked, right? It should’ve worked, yes? It must’ve worked.

Once you looked deep into the Inner Mirror, that was it. Aether would’ve regained all the memories that she had lost due to a different object and would be back to the big sis that she knew.

But it was still too early to celebrate.

I have to see first if she intends to join us.

With her track record of having left the Demon Army once before, it was unknown if she would side with them.

Big sis wasn’t bound to a race in the first place. If the person couldn’t be trusted, she rejected them even if they were a god, and if they were someone righteous, she’d associate with even the most insignificant of people.

She had always been that way. It would be a mistake to assume that she’d side with the Golden-Eyed just because she found her memories again. If things got worse, then she could end up opposing the Demon King.

It’s because of the elf bastard. If I don’t find him somehow and kill him secretly....

She didn’t know if it was romantic or something else, but it seemed that big sis was fairly close with that elf. He might be the reason why she was successfully adjusting to Academy life.

With things the way they were, it wasn’t going to be easy to coax her. If they got caught creating a situation for the sake of planting seeds of distrust in humans....

Ugh, I don’t even want to think about it.

She had to move sensibly if she didn’t want the Demon Castle to become a mushroom farm1.

Rosemary pondered while waiting together with Lotte and Freyr for the cafeteria bell to ring.

Still, Hasfeldt gave her a good stab in the back so there’s a chance, right?

There had been an incident where Hasfeldt tried to sell big sis off to Prince Klion for research funds.

The one who had initiated that whole situation was Rosemary herself. She had brainwashed the Imperial family through Blanton and pressured Professor Hasfeldt to hand Aether over.

And if that plan had succeeded then, things might’ve worked out easily right now.

It sucked but what could she do? Some days, you failed.

Anyway, Rosemary was the mastermind but all she had done was give a little nudge. The one who had agreed to it was definitely Klais Hasfeldt. She had attempted to exchange big sis for a huge amount of gold of her own free will.

This was the foolishness of humans. Some only needed a light prod to make the wrong decision.

Rosemary inwardly snorted. Ignorant bastards.

Ding dong.

“Your order is ready.”

“Woohoo!”

Even taking in the Elankaya Mountains came after eating2, they said.

As soon as the bell went off, the Youko girl leapt off her chair. Freyr brought the dishes one by one.

The savory-smelling beef stew came first, followed by a tomahawk steak cooked over direct fire with steamed potatoes seasoned with herb salt and perfectly cooked peas.

The salad dressed with balsamic and oriental dressing looked fresh, and the fricassée made from chicken imported from Kaurelia by dicing and sautéeing was mouthwatering from the smell alone.

Lastly, there was the carbonara pasta that Aether liked. The cook must’ve added a lot of pepper because there was a spicy aroma.

This was a personal preference, but Rosemary didn’t much like the piperine that made pepper spicy. It was better when eaten with sweet-tasting beryllium.... but the problem was that she couldn’t use a toxic ingredient as if it was a spice in front of other people.

Not that it should matter, because this was for Aether.

Despite having crashed the Imperial economy, the meals at the Academy were still luxurious. It did get a lot more expensive, but the degree of inflation of the cafeteria food wasn’t as bad as expected.

It must’ve been the chairman’s doing.

He was competent where he didn’t need to be, that man.

Well, that aside–

“Hehe, it looks good!”

Rosemary really didn’t like Freyr, and not simply because of her small size or behavior.

How could someone like me be interacting with a beastkin who’s not even a dragon.... How did the world become this way?

The times had changed far too much. When she had lived as royalty, she had never dreamed of something like this.

But she also couldn’t eat separately. This brat was one of Aether’s closest friends, so she had to keep an eye on her and create an opportunity that would get her to betray.

It was easier said than done. The two girls didn’t have any emotional rifts from what Rosemary saw, at least.

One was too nice, and the other was too pure.

These two-dimensional types were the ones she hated the most because they were so consistent that slander tactics didn’t work well on them. Forget betraying anyone; even if they were betrayed themselves, they’d only feel a bit sad and that’d be the end of it.

Although someone like this could change as well if they experienced betrayal a thousand times.... unfortunately, neither humans nor beastkin didn’t live that long.

“Anyway, what’s taking Aether so long?”

“You’re right. Did something happen?”

“I’ll go see where she is.”

Rosemary took this as her chance and stood up.

As soon as she came outside, she stuck a joint in her mouth and lit it. Thanks to decades of experience, she located Aether with Scope in no time.

“Let’s see....”

She was most curious to see how Aether might have changed.

“Found...! Huh?”

[I’ll kill them all.]

Rosemary’s pupils expanded into moons.

“Wh-wh-wh-what......?”

Rosemary lost her balance and stumbled. She nearly fell back from shock.

Rosemary watched Aether’s movements without even realizing that the cigarette had burned all the way.

Aether picked up some metal plate thing from her room and was on her way to the cafeteria. Her gold eyes were sparkling so they looked even brighter than usual.

A solemn face full of determination. Eyes glowing like a gas lantern.

It was an expression shown by the Golden-Eyed when they were feeling hostile towards someone. Rosemary knew this well because it was similar to the face she had made when she went after Vermel.

“Kill them all.... Who, who is she talking about...?”

Rosemary’s mind was racing.

The Demon Army, or the Empire?

It was a fifty-fifty chance. She could only guess until she could directly ask the person herself.

But after a sequence of thoughts, Rosemary’s lips curled up. Her eyes were triumphant.

Exactly, sis. Wipe out all the humans.

The last person to flail at Aether had been Hasfeldt, so that grudge against her had to have turned into animosity towards humans.

Even if that wasn’t the case, Rosemary hadn’t wronged Aether all that much. Turning such a cute sworn sister into a corpse? Ridiculous.

“Sis, over here!”

She waved her hand with the brightest face she could manage.

And up ahead, death marched closer.

**After a light yet heavy lunch, Rosemary waited until she and Aether were alone.

“Can we talk, just the two of us?”

Aether nodded without saying anything. Rosemary took this positively and took her to a secluded path.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hold back her curiosity any longer.

“... Sis, do you remember me?”

The answer came without delay.

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“Why did you transfer to Tilette, Blueberry?”

Rosemary’s face brightened like a kid who received a birthday present upon hearing that.

Aether had a habit of calling all the executives of the Demon Army who were part of the Great Nine Mechas by nicknames. For example, Akasha, who was her younger sister and the other Secundus, was called ‘Kasha’.

And that person would occasionally call her ‘Blueberry’.

There wasn’t any other reason, only that Rosemary’s hair was the color of blueberries.

As such, it was a nickname that wouldn’t have been said if she didn’t remember anything.

Rosemary could’ve leapt for joy but she held herself back and only said what she needed to.

“Why? I stepped in so I could take you home.”

“It’s unnecessary so go back.”

“Are you not thinking of returning yet?”

“Yeah.”

Rosemary pulled out two sticks of mana grass. One went in her mouth, and the other she put in Aether’s, her senior’s mouth.

“Goldenstein, is it.”

“Oh, you know this?”

“I smoked it once when the Youko offered. Is this what you meant when you talked about doing some useless business?”

“Yes, this is also part of the plan.”

Aether’s lips stretched upwards, but her cheeks remained unnaturally stiff.

Huuu, she exhaled. The two streams of smoke rose up through the thick trees.

“Why would you say something like that when you don’t know whose side I’m on?”

“If you had been on the Empire’s side, you wouldn’t have said that to me.”

“... You’ve gotten better at drawing info.”

“I learned it all from you.”

“Your sophistry is admirable. That kind of flattery won’t get you the position of Tertius.”

“You think?”

Having finished her joint, Rosemary covered her mouth with the fan and smiled with her eyes.

Even the great Aether couldn’t have noticed that she had turned on Scope in that short time and heard her saying that she’d ‘kill them all’. She currently had the advantage in terms of information.

“Anyway, so you won’t be coming home anytime soon, right? May I ask why?”

“You already know, don’t you?”

“Know what?”

“You set loose three hundred Drakes during the entrance ceremony and spoke to me through one of them. And this is what you said at the time.”

─ How did you think to take the exam to get in there? That’s why I envy you. I could never do something like that.

“That statement was clearly made assuming that I wouldn’t be returning to the base.”

“Huhu, how astute of you.”

“And using informal speech so casually while you were at it, no?”

“I had to back then for the sake of asserting discipline.”

“Hah, you tried to assert discipline over me...?”

When Aether twisted her lips, Rosemary flinched like a mouse caught in a trap. She said the wrong thing.

“I-I mean, not over you but the others...!”

“I know. I’m joking.”

“Whew....”

Indeed.

Now that she was back to her true self, even her jokes sounded scary.

“Whether I go back later or not, I need to research. In that sense, Tilette is a great place for it.

“We have tons of better equipment at the castle.”

“But then there’s no one to help me.”

“If you’d like, I can help bring them to the castle.”

“I said it’s not necessary.”

Rosemary didn’t care what Aether was researching here, but she had to wait if that was what she wanted.

“So what were you going to research?”

She blocked Flare which she had been researching before losing her memories. But Aether showed no intention of bringing that up.

“You can’t tell?”

“I don’t understand since I’m not worthy.”

Then it meant that she was staying at the Academy for a different research.

When Rosemary tilted her head in a gesture of wanting to know, Aether spit out the joint she’d been chewing on and spoke.

“You’ll find out later.”

Footnotes

1. That is, a place full of dead bodies as certain funghi can grow on them out in the wild2. A parody of the Korean idiom that originally uses Mount Kumgang. English equivalent is 'a loaf of bread is better than the song of many birds'