The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 167: Exchange Students (2)

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and even until Tuesday.

Lotte’s attachment was getting worse by the day.

Lotte followed me wherever I went. We’ve been going around together since before, but it was the first time we stuck together 24/7.

Still, she was her usual self most of the time–the lovely daughter of a Count who was innocent, sweet, and passionate about her studies.

This was her true self. This was the Lotte I knew.

Yet even someone like her acted like a completely different person when she was around a particular person.

Rosemary.

“The scarf looks so nice, sis.”

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Lotte scrunched her face, perhaps thinking that Rosemary’s compliment was just sugarcoated words. In contrast, Rosemary giggled like she came out the victor and covered her mouth with her fan.

Looking between me and Rosemary, Lotte spoke.

“The forecast today said that there’s a break in the weather. Wouldn’t it be okay to take one off?”

“Is it that warm? Then it makes sense to take both of them off.”

Here we go again.

Rosemary was the cause of most of Lotte’s signs of attachment. If Rosemary hadn’t been around, then Lotte wouldn’t have reacted like this towards me.

That was how much Lotte was wary of Rosemary. I knew at least this much.

But I didn’t know specifically what was making her wary.

Simply because she didn’t want her best friend taken away? Or perhaps she knew that Rosemary was actually a Beast?

It didn’t seem to be the latter, at least.

Lotte didn’t seem to be aware that Rosemary was a Beast. If she had, then ‘Intimidate’ should’ve worked already.

In the end, it was a problem that I couldn’t find the answer to. With a sigh, I stepped in between the two glaring at each other.

“I’m cold.”

“You’re cold? Are you feeling sick?”

“No, how could that be?”

“You must not be aware, My Lady. My friend gets sick quite often.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Rosemary smirked, shrugging her shoulders. It was as if she was saying ‘what do you know?’.

Rosemary was one thing, but there was no way to confirm why Lotte was like this. In order to find out the reason, I could only ask Doctor Sephia for a mental health assessment or ask Vermel.

Elf, you asshole.... Where did you go, seriously?

Wasn’t it time that he showed his face? I was keeping a good hold on Rosemary, after all.

“Are you really cold, sis?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Let’s ask the teacher later to put the heater on.”

“A heater won’t be necessary. We have a personal radiator at home, I’ll bring it tomorrow.”

“...A personal one?”

Lotte quirked her head, but didn’t think much about it and immediately changed the subject.

“Still, it doesn’t look good to be wearing both scarves.”

“It’s true. If you have to wear one, then wearing the black one is....”

“What are you saying, Lady Blanton. Aether’s black-haired so she has to wear the white one for a good fit.”

Holy fuck, this was stressful. It was so annoying that I felt like I was going to get high blood pressure despite being a machine.

“It seems you’re a bit clueless, Lady Saliere. The latest fashion trend in the capital is to wear one color.”

“I think it’s more stylish to have different shades. It doesn’t look nice to wear all-black in monochromatic fashion.”

“Huhu, young lady.”

“Is something wrong, My Lady?”

I locked my fingers and brought them to my forehead. I suddenly had a migraine.

My head hurt like it was being stabbed with a knife. I took a few deep breaths but it wasn’t going away that easily.

My neck was uncomfortable, too. As the two argued, I pulled off both mufflers at once and placed them on my knees. Then the two bickering girls both turned their eyes to me.

“What is it? Are you feeling unwell?”

“...Huu.”

I let out a sigh like a boiling pot. Words describing the headache came out of my mouth.

“......It’s going to explode.”

Literally. My absolutely boiling head felt like it would burn up at any moment. That was how awful the pain was.

It wasn’t like this during summer break. Feeling indescribably dizzy, I kept brushing my bangs up and down over and over.

“...What is going to explode?”

“Just....”

“S-sis.”

Lotte’s eyes filled with bewilderment. Rosemary slowly stepped back in fear.

It was a strange, strange sensation, like my body wasn’t by body for a moment.

The two stopped fighting after that. Rosemary backed off first and the morning period became peaceful once again.

In the meantime, I made notes on the research I was going to work on today while waiting for Heerlein.

“Good morning, guys! Did you have a good slee... were you guys fighting?”

Only Heerlein, who had come for the morning meeting, was baffled all of a sudden. She instinctively sensed the unusual air in the class and held back a groan as she looked around the room.

Heerlein’s face was brighter than last week. It seemed that the conversation we had at the palace helped.

I was pleased to see that my mentor’s face had become calm. My aching head started to get better slowly at the thought of that.

“Come forward if you were fighting so I can give you some guidance.”

“Prince Klion and Lustilla had a fight.”

The class pres Mayreel responded to Heerlein’s request. Nodding, Heerlein asked.

“Because?”

“I heard that His Highness asked her out and she turned him down, so they had a bet slash duel last night in an empty lot.”

“Th-that, such impudence! When did this one do such a thing!”

Regardless, the class president kept on disclosing.

The Prince tried to protest with a furious voice, but there weren’t many who took him seriously. Rosemary laughed silently like she was watching some kind of entertainment.

After hearing the whole thing, Heerlein smiled wryly. Her reaction was one of disbelief.

“The two of you come to my lab after the morning assembly. Ah, and no one else was fighting, right?”

Heerlein’s gaze suddenly turned to where Lotte and I were. Unlike a moment ago, her smile was a little rueful this time.

“Regardless of your status, try not to fight with each other. It’ll get in the way of my promotion.”

She wasn’t known as the number one teacher at Tilette who cared about students for nothing. Look at her catching on like a psychic.

“And, ‘duels’ aren’t for choosing who you’re going to date or a means to dump your emotions. If you ever want to engage in legitimate combat, then do it with my permission. It’s dangerous if you do it however you want and get hurt.”

This was said by none other than Miss Heerlein. The students couldn’t help but nod.

“Now, pay attention! There’s an announcement today.”

Miss Heerlein waved the newspaper she brought. The students all focused on one place.

“Did you all read the morning paper?”

“I did.”

“Indeed, how diligent of our class president. Do you know what happened?”

“I know that there was trouble at Iliad Academy.”

Heerlein nodded.

“That’s right. They were attacked by a Cataclysm, so part of the Academy was destroyed and many people died. The newspapers are still counting, but so far they’re saying there’s about forty faculty members and close to a hundred student casualties.”

Except Mayreel and a few others, everyone looked shocked. It wasn’t much different for me.

This world didn’t have a way to get instant access to new information like a smartphone, and I didn’t have time to see what was going on outside since I’d been busy studying after coming into Tilette.

To think that something happened to the academy for elves. This could put a dent in my plans.

“Iliad Academy did?”

“They blew up?”

“Freyr, it’s rude to say that....”

I needed more information. For me, the best thing to do was keep listening to what Heerlein was saying.

“So the exchange students will be coming earlier than scheduled from Iliad, while we depart later.”

“Then....”

“Yes, everyone will have until the end of the Culture Festival to talk to the exchange students.”

The classroom began to ripple like waves. Some were excited, and some were worried about the state of Iliad Academy.

Lotte was close to the latter. She was supposed to go as an exchange student since I asked, but the schedule got messed up unintentionally.

Squeeze. Lotte bit down on her lower lip.

“Aether, can I not go as an exchange student?”

“All of a sudden?”

“Just.... It feels like I’m wasting my time.”

Oh geez, I’d hoped not but...

The worst thing came out of Lotte’s mouth.

There was only one reason why I was sending Lotte as an exchange student–to prepare for the worst thing that could happen to me while she was gone. If Lotte got caught up in that, then it would do more harm than good, and it wouldn’t be good for her emotional well-being either.

Because there were many amongst elves who were with higher Elementals regardless of their nature.

Unlike humans, most elves were born with Elemental affinity. In other words, they were a counter race to the Golden-Eyed.

Rosemary hadn’t been worked up over killing Vermel for nothing. That was how much of a trial the second half of this semester was going to be.

But Lotte didn’t want to go on the exchange program. If things went wrong, I could lose a friend.

“Oh, you’re planning on not going?”

Just then, Rosemary butted in.

Was she going to get in the way this time, too?